Sparkle Valley Philosophy - Thin Places
Aktualisiert: 6. Okt.
Don’t Let the Thin Places Thicken
Let me tell you about thin places. I've always liked the term thin places because it gives a name to something that I think everyone has felt. It's that moment or place when the world feels alive.
It could be a garden at dusk when the colors are putting on a show. Or maybe a big tree that waits patiently for you every day. It might be a friendship or memory, or a song that transports you. Or a sport, think of being in the zone. Or a work of art. That definitely is for me. Think of the last time that a piece of art stopped you cold. Childhood can be a thin place.
Emily's magic garden is her thin place.
The most important thing about thin places is their corrollary.
Things can thicken.
And that’s what Sparkle Valley is all about...
Abigail fights this thickening. The Beast wants numbness.
This is Hank Needlenose’s dream of control. He wants to cut off the portal to the real world from Sparkle Valley. He hates thin places because he’s afraid of them. Hank says it like this in Book 2. It’s a perfect summary of the fear that the Beast can instill.
“Imagination… The cruel enchanter. It captures you and leads you down paths of whimsy, until you’re lost within your own thoughts—unable to distinguish what’s real and not real. That is why I’m shutting [it down] and sealing it up forever.”
And that's exactly why the symbol of thin places is so important. Because Hank is wrong. Growing up isn't really a choice between reality and fantasy. It's the struggle not to let the thin places thicken. Not to let what was once opened close.
“Don't let the thin places thicken.”
That could almost be a motto for Sparkle Valley. Because what thin places do is they remind us that the world is a lot richer and deeper than habit lets us see.
And they ask the poignant question:
What if enchantment is not something we invent, but something we sometimes notice?