The Other Side Of The Sacred Analysis

675 Words2 Pages

“There is two sides to every story Not just the side that you want to hear” (Two Sides to Every Stories-Randy McClave) Life is unpredictable that always contains the contradiction. Nothing appears to be fully good or fully evil. Based on that idea, Snyder invented a term “the other side of the sacred” in his books The Practice of the Wild. This term emphasizes the balance between the positive and the negative in every sacred thing. From that belief, Snyder affirms the importance of acknowledging the concurrent existence of the good and the bad to help humans survive and live a better life. According to Snyder, “the other side of the sacred” is “the sight of your beloved in the underworld, dripping with maggots” (Snyder, 119). He applied …show more content…

Human beings have made much of purity and are repelled by blood, pollution, putrefaction (Snyder, 119). Nature is sacred. We are enjoying it and destroying it simultaneously. Sometimes it is easier to see charming things than the decomposition hidden in the “shade”.We only notice the beautiful side of nature, which are benefits that nature brings us: food, fresh air, water, landscapes. But we forget the other side, the rottenness of human destruction. That is how human beings create “the other side of the sacred”. We cut trees for papers, but we fail to recognize that the lack of trees is the lack of fresh air. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge “the other side of the …show more content…

Knowing their existence helps us prepare for the unexpected: deaths of our loved ones, failure in career, and betrayal from someone we trust. A careful preparation reduces its suddenness so that our ability to suffer the pain is strengthened. Between receiving a low score when we believe that we did well on a test and knowing the bad result in advance, which one is more disappointing ? Acknowledging “the other side of the sacred” is important for us to avoid being a bigot. We do not want to rush in building a wall of prejudice and then getting embarrassed or disappointed when that wall collapses. As an illustration, products on commercials always appear to be high-quality; however, it is actually not as effective as we expect. Life of a celebrity seems to be perfect, but they are usually stressed and bothered by

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Heart's Fox By Josephine Johnson

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    The bond between humans and nature, it is fascinating to see how us has humans and nature interact with each other and in this case the essay The Heart’s Fox by Josephine Johnson is an example of judging the unknown of one's actions. She talks about a fox that had it's life taken as well as many others with it, the respect for nature is something that is precious to most and should not be taken advantage of. Is harming animals or any part of nature always worth it? I see this text as a way of saying that we must be not so terminate the life around us. Today I see us a s experts at destroying most around us and it's sad to see how much we do it and how it's almost as if it's okay to do and sadly is see as it nature itself hurts humans unintentionally

    Read More

  • Jared Diamond Why Do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions Summary

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is easy to deny the reality that the state of the environment plays a large role in the survival of society. People who argue to protect and preserve it are seen as “hippies” or “tree huggers” and discarded by society. On the other hand, those who support deforestation are seen as “killing us all.” This conflict that is often portrayed on modern media is actually one that span all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Jared Diamond, recipient of the Lewis Thomas Prize and physiology professor at UCLA School of Medicine, his essay “Why do Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions” published by Edge on April 26, 2003, argues exactly how societies can doom themselves. Diamond creates his own roadmap as to how and why problems occur. He shows the various ways of how a problem may arise and be

    Read More

  • Marxist Criticisms Of Capitalism

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nature is viewed as something to be conquered and controlled. It is to be turned against itself so that humanity may utilize nature in order to “use it to dominate wholly both it and human beings.”4 Just as humans are to be reduced to nothing more than their work, nature is to be nothing more than the raw material for that work. The mentality of domination contains the subjugation of both humanity and the rest of nature, and they must be assailed

    Read More

  • The Tower of Babel and the Nimrod Effect

    2010 Words  | 5 Pages

    nature, is an affront to God the Creator. The crumbling of the social strata, which

    Read More

  • Summary Of Island Civilization By Robert Frazier Nash

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Wheels Of Freedom: Bicycles In China

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many years ago, people saw the wilderness as a savage wasteland, but today, it is viewed as “the last remaining place where civilization, that all too human disease, has not fully infected the earth.” (Cronon) He discusses this changed point of view by stating the difficulties that society will have rectifying environmental ailments if it stops viewing wilderness as “a dualistic picture in which the human is completely outside the nature.” (Cronon) This is understandable because humans rely on others to create opinions, and they do not know how to form their own thoughts and solutions to issues such as environmental ones. Therefore, it is with great importance that humans begin to learn how to formulate their own thoughts and share those personal thoughts with others, such as sharing solutions about environmental

    Read More

  • Recovering The Sacred Analysis

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    The stories by Winona LaDuke in her novel, Recovering the Sacred, The Power of Naming and Claiming, present some of the many challenges faced by indigenous cultures in a colonial society. Particularly, one of great interest to LaDuke, large corporations, and the government, to name a few, is that of wild rice, otherwise known as Manoomin, of the Anishinaabeg tribe. The problems affecting the Anishinaabeg’s rightful ownership of this wild rice comes from an act of biopiracy; which is basically stealing something biologically sacred to a person or a group, with the intent of pecuniary gain. This paper will address how wild race relates to the four elements of place with in White Earth Reservation: site and situation, tangible built environment, social context, and personal and collective meaning; and how these relationships are sacred to the Anishinaabeg, which makes them victims of biopiracy by the US government.

    Read More

  • Dillard and Thoreau Comparison

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.

    Read More

  • Lines Written in the Early Spring, by William Wordsworth

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his poem, 'Lines Written in the Early Spring,' William Wordsworth gives us insight into his views of the destruction of nature. Using personification, he makes nature seem to be full of life and happy to be living. Yet, man still is destroying what he sees as 'Nature's holy plan'; (8).

    Read More

  • Explaining Sacred Space in The Sacred & The Profane: A Nature of Religion by Mircea Eliade

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Sacred & The Profane: A Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade attempts to define the sacred by stating it is “the opposite of the profane” (pg. 10). Through out the book he tries to explain this statement through the concept of hierophany (the idea that one can experience, sensorily, the manifestation of the holy/sacred), however his main explanation of the sacred being “the opposite of the profane” is the comparison of a modern religious man and a modern non-religious man (a profane man). Eliade compares the two by explaining how each would react to space, time, nature, and life. This essay will explain the idea of sacred space, how a religious and a profane man would experience it, and how the idea of sacred space might be applied to the study of medieval art and architecture.

    Read More

  • Ecologism

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    A human induced global ecological crisis is occurring, threatening the stability of this earth and its inhabitants. The best path to address environmental issues both effectively and morally is a dilemma that raises concerns over which political values are needed to stop the deterioration of the natural environment. Climate change; depletion of resources; overpopulation; rising sea levels; pollution; extinction of species is just to mention a few of the damages that are occurring. The variety of environmental issues and who and how they affect people and other species is varied, however the nature of environmental issues has the potential to cause great devastation. The ecological crisis we face has been caused through anthropocentric behavior that is advantageous to humans, but whether or not anthropocentric attitudes can solve environmental issues effectively is up for debate. Ecologism in theory claims that in order for the ecological crisis to be dealt with absolutely, value and equality has to be placed in the natural world as well as for humans. This is contrasting to many of the dominant principles people in the contemporary world hold, which are more suited to the standards of environmentalism and less radical approaches to conserving the earth. I will argue in this essay that whilst ecologism could most effectively tackle environmental problems, the moral code of ecologism has practical and ethical defects that threaten the values and progress of anthropocentricism and liberal democracy.

    Read More

  • Environmental Ethics

    2117 Words  | 5 Pages

    The most obvious reason that the environment has moral significance is that damage to it affects humans. Supporters of a completely human-centered ethic claim that we should be concerned for the environment only as far as our actions would have a negative effect on other people. Nature has no intrinsic value; it is not good and desirable apart from its interaction with human beings. Destruction and pollution of the environment cannot be wrong unless it results in harm to other humans. This view has its roots in Western tradition, which declares that “human beings are the only morally important members of this world” (Singer p.268).

    Read More

  • Ecocriticism: Literature and The Physical Environment

    2896 Words  | 6 Pages

    Ecocriticism asserts that humans are “peoples of 'place'” (Bressler 231), our lives defined by the environment that we inhabit and the necessities of survival that are dictated by nature. The more we recognize this innate and deep connection—for example, through the reading and analyzing of the nature-human dynamic in literature—the stronger and healthier this relationship will become. We as humans will recognize our dependence on the earth instead of our dominance over it; we will recognize ourselves as “guardians” and learn how to better appreciate and protect the environment for future generations of authors and poets to continue to explore.

    Read More

  • The Positive Effects Of Transhumanism In Society And Nature

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the beginning of human existence, there has been struggle for survival from nature. Humans hunt for food, cut down trees for shelter, and other resources that Earth provides. In time humans evolved beyond their current physical and mental limitations which is known as transhumanism. Thus, leading a boundary between human civilization and nature.

    Read More

  • Social Ecology

    1533 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social ecology observes humans as the main cause of the destroyed earth, by overpopulating it. The world is made up of numerous people, with different races and religions, it’s because of the bad habits men and women have created which have lead to a polluted earth (Carlson, Felton, 2001). Mur...

    Read More

More about The Other Side Of The Sacred Analysis

Open Document