BEYOND ELSEWHERE
3-18-04
The weather has been so unseasonably lovely that the tourists have been unseasonably plentiful in Sausalito for the past 10 days. My daughter is in town for spring break, so she and I walked downtown for lunch, and passed by dozens of people peering into the shops on Bridgeway, looking for – what?
The tourists mostly come from the same place – a town called Where. It’s the generic American community with its mall or downtown which has a Starbuck’s, Noah’s Bagels, Ross Dress for Less, Gap, Banana Republic, Crate and Barrel – we all know what’s at Where. Knowing what we all know, and bored with it, the people of Where became tourists looking for – what?
Looking for clothes in Sausalito? Here we have much the same clothes sold in all the Wheres of Ohio, Iowa, Omaha, and Oklahoma. Looking for ice cream? It’s essentially no different than what’s available in the Wheres of Nashville, Asheville, Louisville, or Jacksonville. Looking for art? Despite all the unique artists that populate Sausalito, most of the galleries downtown sell items that are more or less mass-produced. Most of what’s downtown is a repeat of what is to be found in every other waterfront tourist trap in America, from Sandusky to Sarasota to San Diego. There’s a salt-water taffy store here – and yet in my five months here, getting to know Sausalitans pretty intimately, I’ve never been served salt-water taffy nor seen any local residents consume it. So why do tourists shop at these places? They seem to seek tangible evidence to document their travels. But the evidence they bring home was made by the same factories in China that produce the items sold in every other tourist destination. So in a way, it’s not Sausalito they are visiting. Rather, they have come to make a pilgrimage to a generic Elsewhere. At Elsewhere, you can expect to find salt-water taffy stores, tee-shirt stores, stores that sell wind-up toys, ice-cream shops, and a film developing studio on every corner. And, just to make sure you don’t feel totally lonesome for Where, you’ll find a Starbuck’s in Elsewhere -- and even a sweet little Presbyterian church that’s reminds you of the one back home…. There is a very carefully calibrated distinction between Where and Elsewhere. The difference is just barely enough to make it interesting, but not so interesting that it would cause any anxiety about encountering the radically unfamiliar.
But having taken vacations there many times, the tourist may get the desire to seek out someplace beyond Elsewhere. The tourist may realize that a certain amount of anxiety with the radically unfamiliar might be a healthy thing. At that point, the tourist ventures further, wandering off Bridgeway and visiting with the grizzled guy who carves totem poles by the mudflats near the docks on the north end, climbing up the public stairs to catch the amazing views, visiting the studios of the local artists at Liberty Ship Way. And from there who knows where the tourist will go next? To the clubs where the locals hang out, to the venues where the locals hear live music. Instead of just snapping a picture of that cute Presbyterian church, the tourist goes inside and finds him or herself in coffee hour after worship, signing up to be a tutor in Marin City, getting to know a bunch of people who think quite differently than the way people think back home….
The soul is like a tourist who gets bored with Where and decides to go Elsewhere for a vacation. The soul takes a prayer or a dream to get to Elsewhere, and once there, finds that things are not too much different than they are in Where. It feels like a pleasant break from the routine, but there are no shattering surprises. The spiritual tourist goes Elsewhere and there meets the 1950’s Sunday-School God he or she expected to meet. This Elsewhere of the Spirit is a calmer and kinder place than Where. But after praying or meditating the way to Elsewhere many times, the soul-tourist begins to realize that Elsewhere is just a prettier copy of Where – an idealized projection of his or her own everyday reality -- and that there must be more to experience than what is found Elsewhere. So the soul strays from the well-trod path and discovers that within the heart there is a realm that isn’t familiar – that doesn’t correspond to how he or she thinks things are or ought to be. The realm beyond Elsewhere is both beautiful and terrifying. In this place, the soul doubts its assumptions about itself and about the nature of God– the soul confronts its prejudices, questions its neat theological constructs, challenges its habits and beliefs. It’s more work to go beyond Elsewhere, but it’s also exhilarating and energizing. And as the soul travels further in this place, it begins to gain faith in its ability to live and love despite – and even because of - the uncertainty and ambiguity around it. In Where, the soul barely pays attention to God at all. In Elsewhere, the soul worships the God it thinks it knows. Beyond Elsewhere, the soul worships the God it knows it does not know.
All of us are tourists, trying to get a break from Where. May we all stray from the Bridgeway of the soul, and seek out the less-beaten paths that take us beyond Elsewhere and into the mystery and majesty that is God….