The question that this interpretation poses is, why should something be preserved whole or intact? I think we meet then, when this question is answered.
That ties into the idea that Holy is that which is (most) highly valued.
It must remain whole and intact because it is highly valued.
But why is it highly valued …?
That depends on what it offers; but in general, because it brings joys. It gives rise to a life that is worth contemplating, and this contemplation is worthy of a smile, and slowly over generations this gives rise to a tradition that holds the land in high esteem and uses symbols to affirm this, symbols which come alive by the investment of the people in them - as such I see the birth of holy things.
Now I am aware that I deny in its most literal form the tradition of revelation, that proclaims things holy from above and outside of human agency. I do not believe in this but I do not fanatically disbelieve it - I take it as a beautiful attribution to the generative powers of the universe, which to me seem holy by definition, as they can not be made un-whole.
There seems thus to be a difference between holy land and objects and holy forces. The former need to be protected and kept whole, the latter are those things that make things whole and that make people want to protect them.
On the other hand, if we look at the term the Holy Spirit as denoting something that needs to be protected, then it may refers simply to ‘protocol’ or ‘method’.
Ive heard it say that the spirit is in the ritual, much as the goal is in the path… makes sense to me,
I never could figure out what that third part of the trinity represented.
Now I can see that it is that which connects the son to the father, the soft to the hard, that it is alchemy, (human) nature as a methodical operation.
I value the entire Earth and universe, not a few lands based off of biased preference and attributes to “god”… I do not need a super hero to determine what or how I value, nor my morals and thinking.
So do I.
I do however prefer this over that - I have certain likes and dislikes, tastes.
Holiness is nothing if not related to taste.
This is why it is so distasteful to us to see someone immersed in seeking holiness in some puny little shred of wood or stone.
What if the “puny little shred of wood or stone” is a reminder of experiences deemed holy?
Territorial emergent animal mechanisms. Religious guys have repressed animal needs.
“Where Man is not, nature is barren.”–Blake.
Romanticist vs naturalist–
“Full many a gem of purist ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste it’s fragrance on the desert air.”-- Gray
It’s pretty to think so.–Hemingway.
What might have been is the plague of modern philosophy and religion. This applies to the deification of the land of one’s birth and heritage.
In realistic terms the land becomes holy for us because we were there.
In romanticist terms the American South became, not a dream deferred for many, but a dream denied to many–the dream of being one with the land.
Land that produces Life is holy.
Land and the earth is supposedly holy yet religious folks buy into consumerist industrial society polluting the entire planet…irony…
Then the Earth in totality is holy. Not just certain areas.
And you? Your grotesque avatar suggests otherwise … and what criticism would you have for a hermit who bedevils society and consumerism?
Yeah. It is ironic.
Don’t pretend you can peer into my psyche and understand the type of person I am. You’ll fail.
Ah yes, reclusive hermits, retreating cowards all of them with no will to fight.
Indeed.
Nobody can understand the person you are because you hold everybody at a distance, you challenge any and everybody, regardless of their position, and have something to say about everything. You love anarchy because you feel that then everybody is as helpless as you are. You talk about fighting, but you don’t fight for anything, you are just fighting against everything. You hide behind an avatar to be fearless, but in real life you are just a marginalized nobody … Who doesn’t know that story!
A marginalized nobody? Is that what you really think? What a pious and religious description you have there. A hint of self righteousness no doubt. Very typical of religion. No doubt I am an unrepentant sinner in your eyes.
Yes, I challenge everything. For some reason with people like you that somehow is shocking. For me it’s just natural.
I like anarchy because it disrupts the global dystopia that people like you have created. I’m all about releasing people from such a world.
The sin of modern man is abstracting himself from the ecosystems that spawn and sustain life. The only antidote for this hubris is ecological morality–awareness that what is done to the Other will be done to the Self, sooner or later.