AN AMERICAN MYSTICISM

It all started as a plan to protect a particular piece of land, call it Fontainebleau, Yosemite or Yellowstone. It became an overwhelming organization, resourceful and powerful. But in the heart of every American there is something else : this is what I call `American mysticism'.

The lost mythological feeling

When the first pilgrims arrived in the new colonies, they were escaping religious persecution. When the Irish arrived, they were fleeing from starvation. When the Mexicans cross the Rio Grande, they are seeking a better life. All these different people of diverse origins form the population of the United States. They all have one thing in common : they tried or are trying to forget, even unconsciously, their past, or at least to start something new.

This is particularly true concerning mythology and history. There is no history of the before because there is no common before ; there are no Greek, nor Roman, nor Saxon myths for there are no enchanted forests in the New World, and even if there were, these myths would not apply.

There are no enchanted forests in the U.S.A.... Are there not ? Late last century, John Muir, pioneer spokesman for the national parks, wrote that « Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home ²⁸». The mountains, the forests, the parks, may be the `homes' of the Americans : it is a simple going-back to a primeval time ; but there is something else.

Muir goes on : « parks and reservations are useful [...] as fountains of life ²⁹». The hidden mythology, the invisible theology appears ! The parks bear an essential secret ; without them life has no meaning : « without parks [...] all that is best in civilization will be smothered ³⁰». They act as a mysterious counterbalancing force, giving an indispensable depth to human life.

There is even more. The parks are not just necessary to us, human beings ; in fact it is just a part of a larger element : the Earth. We need to « know ourselves as part of the great community ³¹». Some even make the landscape preservation an axioma of the capitalist theory : « if we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will not [...] produce food either ³²». The Earth is alive and conscious, « the earth never tires, the earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first ³³». This is a « vast impersonal pantheism », and moreover, « the clear realities of nature seen with the inner eye of the spirit reveal the ultimate echo of God ³⁴».

Nature and the parks are part of the American pantheon. The lost mythology was saved by a new way of conceiving Nature, the national parks « represent those intangible values ³⁵» that were lost by the exile to the `New World'.

An American pride

It's almost the end. If you have read carefully, we have almost touched the intangible, the essential. Just before concluding, I'd like to add one more thing : once again, Americans take immense pride in what they do, and the national park system is not one of their smaller achievements.

James Bryce once said that the concept of national parks was America's unique contribution to the democratic idea.

The land for everyone.

Maybe it would teach us a lot, if we were to understand the Park rangers as some clergymen in disguise and the celebrations as a freedom of cult, open to all. Maybe I'll just finish by thanking the United States of America for the concept of the national parks, because « it is one of the many debts the world owes to the United States ³⁶».

With a sentence like that, who needs a conclusion ?

Copyright Sebastian Perez-Duarte 1997 - homepage

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