At least, that is what we call it. It is actually just a sharp ridge on a stretch of Gulph road in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. But we have always known it as “the edge of the world.”
Driving north on Gulph road, as you crest the summit of this ridge you are greeted with dramatic views of the Schuylkill River Valley below and Montgomery County on the other side. You do not have to go fast to feel your stomach lift from the sudden drop off at the top.
Long ago, when we were young and dumb, my friends and I would “borrow” one of our parent’s cars and take turns driving over the edge as fast as we dared trying to get the wheels off the ground. I am not recommending this activity. There was usually beer involved and many of us did not even have a license. Also, Valley Forge was only a state park back then and you could get away with a lot. Such was my misspent youth, smart phones and Netflix did not exist and boys will be boys. Today, looking back on many of my decisions, it is a miracle I survived this long. I have friends who lost control and rolled their vehicles going over the edge of the world.
Now, on Sundays when we leave church to drive back to Phoenixville, my grandchildren grab me and say, “Jimdad, let’s go over the edge of the world!” Of course, I am happy to oblige. Their eyes get big, and they giggle and squirm as we approach the hilltop. They scream with glee as we crest the hill, and their little butts are lifted out of the back seat. We do not go extremely fast, and they are safely belted in, but it is still fun. I am old now and I do not wish to damage my shiny new pick-up or the grandchildren I love.
I do not know how long this little spot has been called the Edge of the World, but I have never known it as anything else. It is the shared geographical and cultural touchstones that gather up our childhood memories and help bind us to each other. Like walking across the frozen Perkiomen in winter (when was the last time that happened?) or playing street hockey, or kick the can, or climbing into caves in Valley Forge only grow up and find out today that they were asbestos mines, ha. We all know it is not the true edge, but if you refer to the edge of the world to anyone who has grown up here, they will know instantly what you mean as their mind fills with images and memories.
Does the world have edges?
I am not asking if the Earth is flat. I am asking if it has edges. Are there edges to the reality we see around us? Does YOUR world have edges? This is not a silly question. It is the most important question we can ask. Here, in the West, we do not like to think about the edges of our world. We often live in a prison of a flat, secular materialism. Yet, we are haunted by the spiritual; even as we turn up the volume on our devices to drown out its’ whispers. We have turned away from the strength and beauty of the unseen, the great bulk of reality, and left it only for the hearts of poets and saints to explore. We shy away from the edge.
Why? Are we afraid of the dark? The sudden drop-off? The lack of seat belts? How can we ever thrive in such a disenchanted world? A world with no edge is dull. But thankfully, such a world does not exist. It has never existed. There is, and has always been, a reality beyond our vision that is teaming with life. Life that is always chipping away at the edges of our world. we pretend it is not there because its values are so different from ours, almost inverted. A realm that informs us that it is the poor in spirit that are to receive a kingdom. A voice that bids us to love our enemies and that it is the hungry that are blessed. These, and countless other truths, are so counter-intuitive to us that they must have come from outside our world, from beyond the edge. We would never have thought of them ourselves.
I often feel claustrophobic in this world. I find the notion of living in a closed system, a world without edges, to be suffocating. To think that our dreams and our longings are trapped here, destined only to rattle around inside our heads. To believe that our prayers ascend only as far as the ceiling, then drift to the floor and dissolve, never to be heard, never to be known by anyone or anything except for our lonely hearts. Why pretend such a dreary place exists?
The older I get the blurrier the edge becomes. And the more certain I become that the only way to engage well with the world on this side of the edge is to better understand the unseen realm on the other side. One day soon the edges will no longer be necessary and the seen and the unseen will blend together forever. Heaven and Earth will marry. The honeymoon will be everlasting.
When that day comes, I plan to hit the edge at top speed, so all four wheels leave the ground. Then I shall spend a long time exploring the new true reality with a bunch of wide-eyed giggling grandkids.
“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.”
C.S. Lewis