The New Holy Trinity

Equus by Andy Scott

I had a meeting in Leeds today so I took the opportunity to take a quick look at the brand new Trinity Shopping Centre. It's not the shops that hold any interest for me, of course, but the space that has been created in order to drive people into them. There's a strong sense that these vast glass and steel malls are the new cathedrals, crystal palaces where people gather to worship the deity of Consumerism.

I am as averse to shopping as I am to the notion of formal worship, but both these kinds of cathedral hold a deep fascination for me. I enjoyed a very secular upbringing but I was nonetheless fascinated as a kid by churches. I actually used to plan cycle tours around visiting our great cathedrals. I had no interest in all the paraphernalia of religion but I was drawn to the space created by these magnificent architectural forms. I think that spoke to a nascent spirituality that I only recognised for what it was many years later when I found my spiritual home in the natural landscape. It is here that I find the sense of space and beauty that perhaps I was seeking back then. And a sense of belonging too. A sense of place in the world.

Much like I feel no sense of belonging inside a church, I feel no sense of belonging in these shiny new pleasure palaces either. It's an alien world, the whole idea of brand identity and loyalty being as mysterious as the holy sacrament. I look on in a kind of bewildered wonderment as an outsider. But I also look on as a photographer with a kind of lust. Imagery is jumping out at you at every turn and tilt of the head. I can't wait to go back. Alien worlds are the very most fascinating of all.

I spared Blip Bear from having to sit through a six hour meeting in the depressing rabbit warren that is Quarry House, entrusting him to youngest son for the day. He's been blipped being coached on the finer arts of cricket!

PS As I got off the train in Leeds this morning another blipper introduced himself to me, a certain Benshep. We've got to know each other through commenting but had never met until today despite the fact that he's another fell runner. He recognised me. How cool is that? I love the intermingling of the virtual and the real that happens here.