As previously mentioned, our knee-jerk reaction to the thickening of thin places is to defend against their degradation. Eventually though, we settle into two distinct camps. Some of us will find that we are compelled to preserve the qualities which make a place thin. On the other hand, most of us will get over our righteous anger and in time appreciate the place for what it was and move on.

But an apathetic “well it was good while it lasted” approach is not the sort of “moving on” that I recommend. I think that we can channel the energy created by thin places into movement. I think we can do something with our replenished sense of vitality.

But, what exactly should we do? Preserving a thin place is a path not many of us will travel and even those who do know they can only hold out for so long. Creating or finding a thin place is preventively difficult and simply too foreboding to be a plausible course of action. Which means, we are ultimately left with a table full of unviable solutions. Thankfully, a simple rephrasing of the situation is more than enough to get us started.

I believe that most of need to stop making or searching for thin places and should instead make more places thin. Don’t go on a crusade to find a blank slate ready to and “enthinified,” think of a place you regularly visit and simply begin to make that place thin. Add plants to your desk. Make it a habit to close your laptop during lunch. Clean up the litter on the trail. Add sheer curtains to your living room. Stay on the designated trails. Bus your table when leaving the understaffed restaurant. Uproot those weeds in your yard. Even though in the moment these actions seem meaningless or too small to make an impact I’m convinced that enough actions like these eventually amount to a place becoming thin. How else does a place take on those ethereal qualities other than someone, or a group of someone’s choosing to consistently and slowly change it for the better? In other words, Enthinifiers don’t need a radical plan, or capital venture. We make the places we all seem to be searching for one desk plant at a time.

Even though thinness is most often a naturally occurring quality made possible by the unknowable forces of the universe. We can, in those rare cases choose to make a place thin, to partner with those unknowable forces. To do whatever we can with whatever lies before us. To chase a sunrise we’ll never see. To plant a tree whose shade we’ll never feel. To collude in this conspiracy. To make this place more like the place we were made for.