The Spiral Staircase
The Spiral Staircase was written by Karen Armstrong. The author of this book was a nun for 7 years before leaving her position as a nun to study at Oxford. She describes her feelings in the Spiral Staircase. She felt lost in a world that had continued to spin in the 7 years she had been a nun. When she returned to the world that existed outside of the ministry, she knew nothing about people, geography, politics, dating or socializing. She lived in a world of minimalist ideas. So when she did re-enter society, she found it difficult. There is a particular quote that I like from this book:
“Once the fixed point of home is gone, there is a fundamental lack of orientation that makes everything seem relative and aimless.”
I think that anyone can relate to this statement. In her particular statement, she is speaking of a physical loss of home along with an emotional loss. However, I think most people can empathize with her. More than likely at some point in many people’s lives, they’ve experienced a loss of home. They are confused about where they are going, what they are doing, and what has been lost to the past. Perhaps it’s not to this great of a depth. However, we all have homes that are comfortable to us; homes that represent who we are; who we want to be, and who we were in the past. Once that home is gone, where do we go?
Most of us get lost for a period of time before we move onto something else. But in that time before we find out new “home” we are lost, we feel aimless and that everything is relative. The lost person doesn’t want to take a step in one direction because they fear that isn’t the right direction. But fear also dictates that a step in the other direction would be a mistake as well. Some people may hit this when they attend college. Some people might come to this point when someone close to them dies or they lose something that is valuable to them.
Back to the book though, it is a well written book. It tells the journey of this woman for many years. It’s quite interesting to see her slowly start functioning again in the world. And what’s more interesting is to see how religion takes an affect on her life afterwards.