Answered by Liz Wegman, Director of Public Relations and Development at PTPI.
8. In talking about visiting Uluru for the first time, the author writes:
“In some odd way that you don’t understand and can’t begin to articulate you feel an acquaintance with it – a familiarity on an unfamiliar level. Somewhere in the deep sediment of your being some long-dormant fragment of primordial memory, some little severed tail of DNA, has twitched or stirred. It is a motion much too faint to be understood or interpreted, but somehow you feel certain that this large, brooding, hypnotic presence has an importance to you at the species level – perhaps even at a sort of tadpole level – and that in some way your visit here is more than happenstance.”
Have you ever felt this experience when visiting a distant place for the first time?
As I mentioned previously, I read this book while traveling through Australia, where I actually visited Uluru. Anyone who has been there can attest to the unbelievably remote setting and the sense of being in the middle of nowhere. I think that, in and of itself, creates an unusual feeling – what is it that compels so many people to travel vast distances to see this giant rock? I remember feeling something sort of strange and compelling as I looked at Uluru from a distance, more so than when I actually walked around it.
The place where I can most identify with what Bryson writes about Uluru is Switzerland. I spent a year there as an au pair after I finished school and every time I return, I feel as though I am coming back to what I describe as my spiritual home. The majesty of the Alps creates a sense of peace in my soul – one that is hard to understand or interpret – and there is nowhere in the world where I feel so happy and truly grateful to be alive. I ended up in Switzerland most unexpectedly, yet it was one of the greatest decisions I think I’ve ever made so I can certainly relate to Bryson’s words about “in some way your visit here is more than happenstance”.
The opinions expressed by PTPI staff and other book club members are entirely their own and are not necessarily the views of People to People International or that of PTPI’s Officers, Board of Directors and Board of Trustees.