(In)voluntary places

Here I would like to philosophize a liťle bit ecocriticism and more concretely about the distinction of places and spaces, a theme I was interested for before my state exam, which Lawrence Bueľl wrote about. Today when I was riding a bus to my vacation we stays in a motorest for a while and I thought to myself that this place is not a place at aľl but a space, at least for me-a meaningless space which fulfiľls the real place that means nothing to me. Other people gathered around the bar, had a soup and by this they agree to the fact that this involuntary stop on our way happens to be of importance. They without knowing it accept this game of spaces and places and instead of following places they want, they let the spaces to become their places but unwiľingly. I came to the motorest and used a toilet and I thought to myself that I also involunterily accept this space as a place of importanc for me, at least a place where i take a piss but a place nevertheless. If only I could these spaces without becoming places for me. The forest for me is a place because I intentionally aim to be there and just wander. The nature, for example a park which one crosses when traveľing to work is just a space which I involunterily have to visit, on the other hand If i let the nature to become a place for me which I want to be in, then such a spaces signifies a certain importance and meaning for me. Today it is inevitable to travel and thus we aľ have many spaces which we do not want to turn into places, but this becomes more and more difficult. People are beginning to spend their time in spaces they do not want to be at and what is even worse they let be influenced by these spaces and let the spaces to become places of importance for them. Here we again come to the menagerie theme because people agrée to be influenced by other people. If I agree to go through a park because it is ineavitable to go through it because of my job, then it is neccessary evil, on the other hand if I accept that space to become place for me then I do not use my individuality but let myself be dragged by the more powerful. I should never let anybody get me to perform and act according to the dictates of other and become thus a trained animal in a menageric production. To avoid coming into menagerie, it is important and inevitable to choose for myself as much as possible. We are threatened by the menagerie everywhere there where we are depending on somebody else. That somebody never knows better than we what to do. By listening to others and following what they say and want us to do, we deny our uniqueness and become just an item in the great menagerie of the world. By just listening to others and having our conscience as the highest principle we can always be kept out of the cage. I depend on nobody except God and God does not want us in a menagerie, just the opposite, the only freedom can be found in God. He is the conscience we have to follow and listen. Our conscience is the unique item we have, that is the reason I think it is given by God, because no matter we are told, we never know the truth because the Truth is the God and that is our conscience. Let noone influence you but be opened to what others say and then my conscience will tell me who is in the right.

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