Day 4 - Patterns

This image is of the ceiling of The Basílica de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Spain. What you are looking at is 200 feet high and built to mimic the look of stars shining through a canopy of trees.

I uh… I don’t really know if I have the ability to talk about this place in any real, productive way. It overwhelmed me, there is no better way to say it.

I mean, I guess you could just come out and say it was beautiful. And even after years of contemplation I don’t know if I have approached something better than that description. I was confronted by something unnameable when I entered. It was religious, even to someone who is not. It transcended the barrier of belief with its magnitude, and in that moment I was awash at sea. I was drowned in it. This place was not some tired trope - its theme ancient and repetitious; but something real and alive and fearful and sublime.

I guess what the words (and even this photograph) fail to convey is the absolute sheer scale of this place. It stands colossal and proud; the near-indescribable monument to man’s obsession and faith. As I turned to my travel companions I was silent. What words could I possibly say to add anything of value to this scene? For a moment I was completely captivated. I was transcended. I was hypnotized.

I realize that I sound crazy, that the gait of this explanation is unsure and directionless, and mostly that my descriptions are inept. But the reality is that there is no way to describe this place. I think I could visit it a hundred more times and I would not have a better grasp or foundation.

I guess all I can say is this: it was beautiful.