A Memory
I recalled a fond memory today, one that has come and gone but has never been forgotton. I lived in Philadelphia for four years while I went to school. I think it was my first year there and Abby (my sister) came to visit me. We were two country bumpkins in a big city (I didn't leave my apartment much that first year). I can't remember much of what we did those couple days, but one thing I do remember is us walking into SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Basilica. It was a big building, with a huge aged green copper dome. I had always wondered what it was like inside. Abby was here, it was there before us, and we went in. It was dark and dim. There was so much space, it was huge. I think we may have been the only ones inside. We didn't stay long. The one thing that strikes me most is that we whispered to eachother. Why did we whisper? Why?
The best I can guess is that we subconciously recognized something sacred, something otherworldly, something beyond our senses that caused our hushed communication. Then we walked out into the light and and had a nice visit.
posted by Peter @ 8:28 PM
5 Comments:
"The best I can guess is that we subconciously recognized something sacred, something otherworldly, something beyond our senses that caused our hushed communication. Then we walked out into the light and and had a nice visit."
I don't know, Pete. Did you shout in the Quaker meeting house? I'm willing to bet that you whispered there as well. Was there something sacred there in the meeting house, something otherworldly, something that caused hushed communication?
But maybe my hunch is wrong. Maybe you were awed to silence by the basilica, and shouted, "whoopee!" in the meeting house.
I'm not denigrating your revisionist memory work (I do enough of it myself), just wondering aloud. (or as loud as a blog comments post will allow me to. of course I haven't said a word.)
Yes, your hunch is wrong. The Quaker meeting house not did cause a sense of awe, and it was anything but otherworldly. In fact we held a school event there, and I had no problem cracking innumerable jokes with my friends in the middle of the hall. It was physically barren. For those who oppose the spirit against the physical, it would be a great place for a pure spirit. But I am human. I have a body as well. I see, smell, taste, hear, touch. I worship God with all of my being, spirit and body. Fond memory, yes, but anything but revisionist.
Damned hunches. Alright, I do admit that my back betrayed me.
That won't stop me from pestering you some more.
Now I know that you would have been super quiet with your friends if you had had a school event at the basilica.
I still don't buy it.
Will staring at my white ceiling cause the same response within my soul as gazing upwards in the Sistene Chapel? Will walking through the Quaker Meeting House cause the same response within my soul as walking through SS. Peter and Paul Basilica?
When I walk through the Basilica I feel a sudden urge to bow down and worship the statues, because that's what we Catholics do. We have all these great gods around to distract us from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet when I walk through the Quaker Meeting house there isn't a William Penn to be found in the whole place (boring).
:-) :-)
We did share that cheese steak, didn't we.
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