This is a strange post. I published it once by mistake. Thirty-four people read it before I could remove it from my blog. I updated it and published it again. I removed it from the blog completely and reverted the post to draft. Then, I re-published it a third time. Last night, I removed it again, and this morning I am updating it for the fourth time; however, this morning, I know why. This post is not about a wedding venue; this post is about a Welty sense of place. I was reading from The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture edited by Charles Reagan Wilson, and I came across an entry entitled, Place, Sense of. The first line of the encyclopedia entry was a quote by Eudora Welty. "One place comprehended can make us understand other places better."
The second paragraph of the entry reads as follows: Attachment to a place gives an abiding identity because places associated with family, community, and history have depth. Philosopher Yi-Fu Tuan points out that a sense of place in any human society comes from the intersection of space and time. Southerners developed an acute sense of place as a result of their dramatic and traumatic history and their rural isolation on the land for generations. As Welty noted, "feelings are bound up with place," and the film title Places in the Heart captured the emotional quality that places evoke. "Home" is a potent word for many Southerners, and the "homeplace" evokes reverence.
So I absolutely had to read Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (which I read this morning) by Yi-Fu Tuan (which for some reason is the most difficult name to type). One word ~ AMAZING! This book should be required reading for every person who resides on the planet earth! I haven't digested the book completely, as I will need to read it twice or maybe three times; however, there is one excerpt that begs to be included in this post:
What is a place? What gives a place its identity, its aura? These questions occurred to physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg when they visited Kronberg Castle in Denmark. Bohr said to Heisenberg: "Isn't it strange how this castle changes as soon as one imagines that Hamlet lived here? As scientists we believe that a castle consists only of stones, and admire the way the architect put them together. The stones, the green roof with its patina, the wood carvings in the church, constitute the whole castle. None of this should be changed by the fact that Hamlet lived here, and yet it is changed completely. Suddenly the walls and the ramparts speak quite a different language. The courtyard becomes an entire world....
The Commons Hall is described on the website as "a grand Southern house with the spirit and style of the South and all the comforts and amenities of modern sophistication." Katie and her fiance considered a variety of venues; however, the description of this location provided clear direction for the special day ~ the spirit and style of the South with modern sophistication. The first time I saw the house was dusk, and the golden sun of a western Mississippi sky seemed to gild its facade. As my daughter guided me through each building, outside area, and inside room of what is known as The Commons at Eudora Welty's Birthplace, I felt a congenial invitation ~ not from a person, but from a place. I have felt a similar propinquity with place at other times in my life, almost as if I were given the setting of a story in order to magically conjure up the unknown narrative to follow ~ a proximity, a vicinity, a nearness that provides an instant connection. For my daughter, the grand Southern house was the perfect choice for a wedding; for me, the grand Southern house was "THE place" of Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings.
The Welty Commons is surrounded by courthouses and Capitol buildings, magnolias and crepe myrtles, a few nationally-acclaimed restaurants and the locals' favorite tavern. On the property itself is the Tattered Pages Bookstore and Congress Street Coffee, both of which will be open on the day of the wedding!
Natural lighting also finds its way into every great room, hallway and alcove and is just as radiant as the lambent light. I knew in my heart that my daughter's wedding narrative had found its perfect setting...a perfect sense of place.
And yet, with all the Southern charm inside the Commons Hall, the grounds and outbuildings offer a more current, contemporary vibe to the venue...well-appointed places to sit, to reflect, to relate, to connect, to celebrate, to dance, to interact, to engage and to wed. I am immediately transported back to the present...to a venue, to an event, to a wedding, to a reception, to a list of decisions. My daughter is no different from any other bride-to-be. It's all about the wedding, Mom; but, for me ~ the writer ~ for a brief intersection of space and time, it's all about place.
"Place is vitally important to a story. Place answers the questions, "What happened? Who's here? Who's coming?" Place is a prompt to memory; thus the human mind is what makes place significant. This is the job of the storyteller." ~ Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty is said to have crafted the modern Southern fairy tale. She served as queen of this Southern place, and she understood its people. Like the phoenix that rises up from the ashes, a new story will emerge from 741 N. Congress Street. On April 26, 2014, an intersection of space and time will take place at the Welty Commons. We will not be enamored by the lighting, or charmed by the location, or even fascinated by the birthplace of Eudora Welty. An abiding identity will be created from experience and memory, and we will forever know it as "THE place" where Katie and Brandon were married.
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