Books are more then papers that have words put on them , they are gates to worlds that we can't find for ourselves, worlds that are constructed from codes and expressions , from images and characters that come to life as we browse through the pages. Do to our modesty and fear, we hasitate to go on a journey to lands that we never been before , but we try to compensate all of this with the stories written on the pages of our favorite books.
A good author can teleport you in the middle of the action through his fine selection of words which build sceneries and characters out of thin air.A place that I always had a fascination for was the Deep American South with is conservative and colorful culture that spreads on both banks of the great Mississippi river.
The Low Lands of the Mississippi is a place of true mysticism given by the rich vegetation of the swamps that decorate the region and by it's rudimentary lifestyle that the people of the place are still following the ways of their ancestors.The ones who made of focal point of their works the portreyal of the cultural heritage of the region managed to highlight the conservation of some linguistic and cultural traits that the early european colonists had and were lost in other regions of the US.
A land that was not deprived of its rich vegetation , Mississippi Low Lands are a homogeneous mixture of water and soild which stood as a foundation for both the europeans who came here in the search for a better life and for the natives who worshiped their ancestral gods on the vast plains of the Mississippi. This place welcomed both the old and the new gods, little modest wooden churches can be seen in every town of this southern state, they are a place a devotion to the Lord , they are places around which community life revolves.
The architectural modesty of the worship buildings is meant to balance them with the exuberant forests and waterlands that fill the plains of the Magnolia State , a walk through this Jesusland can show you the high spiritual charge that fills the air , having as source both the white and native devotion to the Higher Being.Water is a element with a high charge of symbolism, being both a physical and spiritual cleanser in many human cultures . Its presence in a overwhelming quantity makes the hollyness of the land to expand in a breath taking atmosphere of Christian morality and modesty.
Going down the old water way , bridges try to connect what should be naturally divided , streching their bodies across the dirty waters , from one river bank to the other , in a great succession of monumental man made structures. The scenery is natural and repetitive , filled with greens in the sprind ans summer and with rusty oranges and brown during fall . The montony of the scenery is broke from time to time by the white towers of the baptist colonial churches that rise above the natural vegetation wall that guards of the Mississippi.
The general atmosphere is that of a welcoming poverty , being relateable to most of people in some way, the little towns of Mississippi lay in their undistrubed rythem of life that is centered around a few basic values that never go out of fashion for the locals. Being the heart of the Deep South, this land of Mississippi is covered by Bible pages and chant books for most of the outsiders, it has fancy church lady hats with magnolias on top ...but is there more to this land then what we see with a outsider's eyes.
Browsing through the history of the Magnolia , we see in front of us a land with a history that is rooted in to the original spirit of the American Continent . A history that claims a rich material and spiritual culture, a culture that goes back to the precolonial period to the european colonization , the Civil War and the Modern Era.
A culture that is multidimensional , multehtnic and multiracial in its most deepest nature.Sing of a history marked by slavery can be seen even today , they were conserved in both material and immaterial form .Some say it's a land that is blessed , some say that it's cursed , depeding on what perspective they are looking at it.
One thing can be sure , the land of Mississippi tries to make us understand that the best way to live life is through simplicity and communion with Nature , through love to borth man made and natural elements that create our immediate environment. Books and other writtings opened my eyes to this interesting land of the Deep South , a world that is worth discovering peace by peace.
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