"participation in deliberate ritual activity is what invariably occasions the transition from experience a place...the topos suddenly becoms a chora, intimately a part of your life" (page 39)
After reading this quotation it brought to mind a story my father told me once. Now it's not an epic tale, but it reminds me of this definition of chora. It was my tenth birthday, and we decided to go on a camel safari in the Serengeti. We were living in Tanzania at the time but went on a safari in Arusha. To this day he talks about this location as though it was some mystical place in his life, the bathroom. Now i know most people would laugh at such a thing. But , thats exactly why it fits the definition of chora so well. The bathroom is usually noted as topos and is a generic place used for one (or two things, hahaha) however; to my dad this bathroom will forever be a chora to him. The bathroom was located on top of a hill that faced west. It was an open shack that overlooked the Serengeti, completely open to nature and exposed you to the world. If you were out there at just the right time you could watch the sun set over the Serengeti. It was a very minimalist bathroom that didn't even have a door to protect you from the outside world. He said he's never had a more relazing and spiritual time in the bathroom. This is an example of a place that we go everyday, but dont usually pay any attention to location or setting, as long as the function is there we don't usually even thinkg twice about where we actually are.
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