@Lisa, I've been fortunate enough to visit several "thin places" as I will now, thanks to you, forever remember them. This is a beautifully written and planned piece, and filled with all the good stuff of history - the distant past right up to the present moment's lived experience. It's good to remember we are part of it all.
I really went down the internet rabbit hole learning about this. Irish Reddit had a whole discussion thread that I really enjoyed. "Thin places" ranged from Achill Island to the Tesco's at Jervis Shopping Center. Also the entire County Sligo. And then there was this comment: "The boundary between life and death is pretty thin at Walkinstown roundabout." I really love the Irish.
Are these places all where water meets sky? I’m fascinated by places which seem to have taken on spiritual significance, where the ground has become sanctified. I know nada about Ireland. Curious, tho.
Cliffs and horizon lines are frequently cited as "thin places" ... they connect us with the infinite, which is no doubt why we are drawn to them. The places that were cited in the reddit thread I think are the spooky places.
I visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum on a recent trip to New York and experienced a heaviness in my chest and feeling of gloom while I was there. The museum is underground, so you take an escalator down upon arrival. I couldn't disentangle what part of the sinking feeling I experienced was the effect of the museum's physical set up versus the spiritual weight of the tragic end so many met at that site.
Yes. You raise a good point. We don't have to travel very far to feel the weight of history - in this case, our own history. I was living in New York and saw the event from my midtown office window. Later I worked down there for years, and even now I avoid the memorial. I guess the difference is that while if someone had asked me whether I was aware of a bombing in Omagh years before, I would have said yes, but was not at all aware of horror of the event. With 9-11 I think we all knew the magnitude of what happened.
I was a freshman in college in Ohio when 9/11 happened. Part of the heaviness I felt was definitely recalling my own emotional experience of the event. It was terrifying to experience from far away. I can't imagine the horror of being close by. I understand avoiding the memorial, but if you ever decide to go, the museum curators took a lot of care in designing the space so that you can be intentional about what parts of the exhibits you interact with.
No, I didn't. I wish I would have. I've seen famine memorials in both Philadelphia and Boston. Would have loved to compare. I'll put it on my list for next time I'm in NYC.
I know what you mean with feeling the weight of history. I had physical reactions on our trip through Eastern Poland, which is basically a mass grave of the Jewish people every turn you take. Of course I knew about the horrors that had happened there, but I was still amazed that I felt such pressure and such a presence. Those places can never be just a place.
When we finally discovered my husband’s family’s tiny shtetl in Ukraine (Norinsk, near the border of Belarus) we looked at the current town on Google earth. Any trace of its Jewish inhabitants had been of course erased. Some of this was accomplished by violence, but it was completed by emigration (my husband’s people left for New York, and surviving members of the community after the war ended up in Israel). The graveyard there is untended. It will be reclaimed by the natural world and disappear very soon. But I am confident that if we visited this town there would be the undeniable presence of the Jews who once lived there. You are right that despite the best efforts to erase the past all over Eastern Europe there are thin places telling the story of the Jewish people.
@Lisa, I've been fortunate enough to visit several "thin places" as I will now, thanks to you, forever remember them. This is a beautifully written and planned piece, and filled with all the good stuff of history - the distant past right up to the present moment's lived experience. It's good to remember we are part of it all.
"Thin places." I like this idea; where the fabric between this physical material realm and the one beyond, the sacred.
I really went down the internet rabbit hole learning about this. Irish Reddit had a whole discussion thread that I really enjoyed. "Thin places" ranged from Achill Island to the Tesco's at Jervis Shopping Center. Also the entire County Sligo. And then there was this comment: "The boundary between life and death is pretty thin at Walkinstown roundabout." I really love the Irish.
Are these places all where water meets sky? I’m fascinated by places which seem to have taken on spiritual significance, where the ground has become sanctified. I know nada about Ireland. Curious, tho.
Cliffs and horizon lines are frequently cited as "thin places" ... they connect us with the infinite, which is no doubt why we are drawn to them. The places that were cited in the reddit thread I think are the spooky places.
Thin at the edges where our ancestors await!
I visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum on a recent trip to New York and experienced a heaviness in my chest and feeling of gloom while I was there. The museum is underground, so you take an escalator down upon arrival. I couldn't disentangle what part of the sinking feeling I experienced was the effect of the museum's physical set up versus the spiritual weight of the tragic end so many met at that site.
Yes. You raise a good point. We don't have to travel very far to feel the weight of history - in this case, our own history. I was living in New York and saw the event from my midtown office window. Later I worked down there for years, and even now I avoid the memorial. I guess the difference is that while if someone had asked me whether I was aware of a bombing in Omagh years before, I would have said yes, but was not at all aware of horror of the event. With 9-11 I think we all knew the magnitude of what happened.
I was a freshman in college in Ohio when 9/11 happened. Part of the heaviness I felt was definitely recalling my own emotional experience of the event. It was terrifying to experience from far away. I can't imagine the horror of being close by. I understand avoiding the memorial, but if you ever decide to go, the museum curators took a lot of care in designing the space so that you can be intentional about what parts of the exhibits you interact with.
Did you happen to see the Irish famine memorial on your visit? It's just a few blocks from there. It's really stunning.
No, I didn't. I wish I would have. I've seen famine memorials in both Philadelphia and Boston. Would have loved to compare. I'll put it on my list for next time I'm in NYC.
I know what you mean with feeling the weight of history. I had physical reactions on our trip through Eastern Poland, which is basically a mass grave of the Jewish people every turn you take. Of course I knew about the horrors that had happened there, but I was still amazed that I felt such pressure and such a presence. Those places can never be just a place.
When we finally discovered my husband’s family’s tiny shtetl in Ukraine (Norinsk, near the border of Belarus) we looked at the current town on Google earth. Any trace of its Jewish inhabitants had been of course erased. Some of this was accomplished by violence, but it was completed by emigration (my husband’s people left for New York, and surviving members of the community after the war ended up in Israel). The graveyard there is untended. It will be reclaimed by the natural world and disappear very soon. But I am confident that if we visited this town there would be the undeniable presence of the Jews who once lived there. You are right that despite the best efforts to erase the past all over Eastern Europe there are thin places telling the story of the Jewish people.
What a beautiful piece. I never heard of "thin places" before. It makes so much sense. Thank you for sharing!
You really took me there. Thanks for sharing this story.