Jessica Buhler ~A Sense of Belonging (Lane)

“To be rooted… is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul. If deprived of a sufficient sense of placement in our world, we proceed even to make up places with the power of our own imagination” (Lane 7). This phrase is referring to sense of place, stating that everyone in the world needs to feel like they belong. I feel on the Appalachian Trail people that may have lacked that feeling gain that feeling of belong because they learn to become one with who they are and the world around them. It is one of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Without it, it makes it very difficult to survive. Friendship, belonging to a group, or giving and receiving love can all create a rooted person and give a sense of placement. But why can one not survive without a sense of place? This may be due to the feeling of isolation, the idea that there is no one else that can relate to that person, causing them to lose to touch with reality. This, I believe, distorts the imagination. This distortion can drive people to create a false picture of the world and false feelings towards it.

If deprived from certain aspects of life, will a person proceed to create a made up place in order to feel needed? Indeed, I believe a person will strive to make up a false place or a series of places in order to get the sense of being important. A person who strives to travel the world will create in their head the places they desire to go and imagine what they will be like when they get there, even though it is predominately based on fiction rather than fact. So does this mean that a deprived person imagines what they wish their life was like? Yes, a deprived person realizes their world in reality, and while not liking it, creates a mythic world of how they wish it was and how they would fit into it. In order to detour this creation of an imaginary place, it is best to find where and how a person belongs in the world.