It vs. Thou- Kelly Malloy

Lane’s four axioms, as seen in the book The Phenomenology of Prayer, are very informative and straightforward when describing how a place is considered sacred. When I began reading his axioms, I couldn’t think of a place that was sacred to me, simply because I trying to find a place that I had made sacred. I soon realized I was overthinking it, and I needed to find a place that chose me. Over this past summer, I spent a week sailing with my father and uncle around the Island of Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten, which is located in the French West Indies/ Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. Before this week on my uncles boat, I never understood why sailors would refer to their boat as “She” because I had only ever tread on sailboats. I treated the boat as an object, an It, and never found a reason to treat it differently. After my week living on “Silver Living”, I now understand why sailors will refer to their boat as a subject, a Thou, or a You.

The first day on the boat we decided to make the 10 mile passage across the open sea to the island of St. Barthelemy. After fixing some minor engine issues, we began our passage. Suddenly, a storm descended upon the boat, and the seas grew to 10-12 feet. Within a matter of minutes, chaos began, with no coast guard to call if we needed help. The sails were ripping, the engine smoking, tools flying overboard, rain so hard you couldn’t see which direction you were headed. We fixed the most urgent problems first, working from “what can I help with to stay afloat?” to “how do we get back to land?”. After what seemed like hours, we got our bearings, and limped back to where we came from, the Dutch capitol of Philipsburg in St. Maarten. I check the time, assuming we were gone for over 8 hours and that it was time for dinner. It was only noon; we had been at sea for less than 3 hours. I was shocked at how slow time had gone by, considering how much had gone wrong during our attempted passage.

During this first day at sea, and different encounters throughout the rest of my week, I really began to understand the personality of the sailboat; when she would be “happy” and the engine would start without a problem, or when she was “mad” and it would take us hours to figure out what was wrong with her before the engine would work.

I believe the experience I had with this sailboat was different than most other experiences pertaining to a sacred place. For example, you can either treat a tree as an object, or a subject with its own project. But a sailboat isn’t living, or growing; a sailboat’s only purpose is to serve you, which is a characteristic of an object. Yet I still feel a connection with this sailboat in a way that I believe makes it a subject, or a Thou. I feel that I could personify the sailboat, “Silver Lining” in an accurate way that describes her personality.

This experience taught me that a sacred place doesn’t have to be physically living or even growing for you to form a strong connection to it.