Travelogue Durham: Breathless

While standing in St. Cuthbert's shrine inside the Durham cathedral the realization dawned on me that people visit churches and clubs for the same reason.

This reason occurred to me as I was staring up at a magnificent painting of the resurrected Christ suspended horizontally from the ceiling so that one had to turn and look upwards to see it.

People were gathered around, meditating, praying, reflecting - some sitting, some standing, some pacing around, some looking upwards as I was, some closing their eyes. Flickering candles and the dancing shadows they made cast an ethereal glow over the proceedings. The hushed, muted tones of visitors walking around other parts of the cathedral echoed off the massive, towering walls.

Standing there, it felt almost as if the world outside didn't exist. As if everything else was a dream. Or was this the dream?

Time seemed to have slowed down tremendously compared to the bright, bustling shopping centre we had just come from. Every slightest movement was measured and deliberate - the lighting of a candle for prayer, the folding of palms, the raising of clasped hands to lips.

The whole atmosphere of the place felt surreal. And as I stared up at that radiant, gleaming painting of Christ, which in that moment looked very lifelike and terrifying, I realized that people go to churches and clubs for the same reason - to be dazzled.

Whether it's flashing lights or flickering candles, throbbing beats or haunting harmonies, people are looking for something to take their breath away.

Everyone needs a place where, if only for a few hours, they can lose themselves, their problems, and their worries, and be caught up in something bigger than themselves, whether it's a sea of worshippers or of revellers.

Worship and revel. Those two words could be interchanged as easily as any reasons a person visits a church or a club. All worshippers find something about the object of their worship to revel in. And all revelers take part in ceremonious rituals to express their enjoyment.

They're not so far apart, those two worlds, really. Churches and clubs.

There are the extremists in both camps that give each a bad name, those who get drunk on beer and the others who get drunk in the spirit. There are those who go because their friends go. There are those, like me, who go out of curiosity, in hopes of finding out what it is about these institutions that so draw and unite masses upon masses around the world.

I find that people who go to these places are looking for the same things - for an escape, a temporary respite from the harshness of reality, for splendour, for beauty, for something - anything - to make them feel alive again... for something to leave them breathless.