Landscapes of the sacred 1

“Tension between the local and the universal”

The fourth and final axiom is the tension between the local and universal, the centripetal and centrifugal forces. When I was reading this passage I tried thinking of my own time of when I felt this push and pull sensation. It upset me slightly that I couldn’t think of anything off the top of my head because I thought for sure, being the devoted Jew I am. The first thing that came to mind when thinking of this feeling was when I was in Boston exploring the quarries in Braintree. While exploring with my dad we found this very random and extremely out of place cave. Due to its location so deep in the woods, along with how deep it went into the hill with it not being any more then 3-1/2 feet high that it had to be man made. My brother, father, and I all went into the cave to see if we could find anything in it. After going in about 20 yards  deep into the cave I started to get very anxious. As I kept on moving forward, I get about another 10 yards and I start feeling what I would call this local and universal pushing and pulling at me. At one point I wanted to turn around and he out of the cave because I was starting to really become uncomfortable being in such a space. However at the same time my imagination was begging me to continue on and see what the cave had to offer. In the end I turned around after a couple more yards because my anxiety got the best of me.

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