Landscapes of the Sacred 1

In Landscapes of the Sacred, the book talks about the "ordinary [acts] as a mask of the holy." In class, we discussed how the mask conceals and reveals. It conceals by hiding an identity while giving it a new identity. It's interesting how Martin Luther brings out the point that humans want to "possess the sacred without owning the ordinary." Before reading this, I see how I've taken ordinary objects for granted and never questioned if they were their importance or what they offered. Part of the axioms of a sacred place is that it's an "ordinary place made extraordinary." The concept of the mask supports this axiom. The author's experience of watching the leaf meet the water and understanding its meaning brings light to the idea. I would've never thought of noticing something as ordinary as important. I would've looked "beyond" it. While it seems crazy to find a holy place in an ordinary place, it also makes sense. A holy place must be found in plain sight, but it takes someone of imagination and virtue to witness it.