Terry Tempest Williams, and more on nature and spirituality

You know, thanks to Kristin I have been thinking a lot more about the idea that we discussed somewhat in class, about a genetic need for spirituality. On the one hand I have a hard time believing that could be true--in my mind, everyone has a need for something spiritual, to believe that there's something greater than themselves out there. Whether they run from that feeling or embrace it is a different matter.

I have never been one to boil everything down to genetics--in the nature versus nurture debate, I tend to think that our culture and values and a lot of our personality get stamped on us when we are young. Certainly there is a hereditary factor--a huge one. I always thought identical twin studies were cool, and it amazes me to hear stories about identical twins who were separated at birth growing up apart yet living radically similar lives. But when I think about spirituality, a lot of people who are raised in very spiritual environments turn out to embrace spirituality themselves. Is that because of genes? Or is it because of the way they were raised?

My parents profess little or no need for God--they don't go to church and at times have actually discouraged me from going to church. The certainly don't see the value in prayer, or see any sense in trusting God. My grandparents? My mom's parents, and my dad's mom, have all been faithful churchgoers at some point in their adult lives. Both of my parents were raised in the Southern Baptist church. If spirituality were in our nature, then what happened with my parents? Did that need for God skip them and resurface in myself? I don't know--that's definitely a possibility. What I tend to think, though, is that my parents were raised in the post-World War II era, during the Cold War, when people were taught that hard work and success were a way of life. I think people to some extent were conditioned to fear--and I think fear ultimately leads you to turn inward to find answers, because it takes an awful lot of faith and trust to turn outward and find answers in the spiritual realm. My grandparents stopped going to church at some point when my parents were still young, and it wasn't until their old age that they returned. And then what happened with me? I don't know when my need for God surfaced and I really started seeking after something consistent to bind the universe together. But I remember feeling that it was the answer I always knew, and had just turned my face away from for so long. I have definitely needed God all my life. I personally feel that most people, if they could really search themselves objectively, would admit the same thing.

I have thought a lot about Terry Tempest Williams in exploring this idea. Here is a woman who is deeply rooted in the Mormon faith, deeply spiritual--she clings to faith, to spirituality. No doubt that need arose from her family--but was it the nature or the nurture? You cannot separate her from the genes that her parents gave her, nor can you separate her from the Mormon culture in which she grew up. Is there a genetic need for spirituality? I cannot be sure.

Speaking of Terry Tempest Williams, I want to talk so much more about Refuge. But I don't have time to go into that right now. What a beautiful, moving book! That's all I will say, until this weekend.