Landscapes of the Sacred I

Poet Wendell Berry says "people can't change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported . . .the faster we go. . .the longer it takes to bring the mind to a stop in the presence of anything" (Lane, 31). The quote stuck out while I was reading Landscapes of the Sacred and is also one of the quotes that made the most sense to me. After reading this, I connected it back to Newton's laws of motion. An object that is at rest or in motion will stay in it 's original state unless acted upon by an outside force. In terms of objects in motion, one specific example that I felt was similar to Berry's concept: when a person is in a car accident, the car stops but the human body continues to move forward unless stopped by another force (i.e. seat belt). A person's body will stop in a place but their mind metaphorically keeps moving until it adapts to a new place and becomes familiar with all the new things in its presence. Another example of this concept it when a person flies to the other side of the world; their bodies are there but they are not fully "there". The mind has to become acclimated to the new place, time, and other aspects of its surroundings before the person can fully be there body and mind.