In the Southern Highlands rhododendron and mountain laurel are the two most common plants in higher elevations. Henry chose the name, 'Laurel' to refer to the area where 'God's chosen people' lived. A generation of good people lived in that area. But like Heaven there was two way traffic; some 'bad' people wanted to improve themselves so they moved to Laurel; and conversely some of the people in Laurel chose to drop to the majority and go with the flow. (to me this seems roughly comparable to the hardshell Baptist distinction between the Lost and the Saved; those is Laurel are saved while the others are Lost; the author likely had other things in mind when he made the distinction.)
(The author commented about Lizbet as follows:
Note on Lizbet (p.92): Lizbet's family live in the Laurel, down in the Dismal beside Dark Fork. There is some Shadow darkness in Laurel, too, although Light generally prevails over it there. See Map. http://thesummerboy.com/map.
In The Summer Boy the word 'laurel' is mentioned often, but it wasn't until Robberlee, speakng as the gray family at the ferry (Even their clothes were ashen beyond life) that it was used as a place:
"Robberlee chuckled, “I’m the only fool in the Laurel who ever wants to go the
other way.” (page 66)
The opposite of the Laurel is the Shadow; speaking of the 'gray people':
"Unchecked, their need to subdue and diminish all about them would have wrecked the whole
world. So they were set apart into Shadow until such time as there may be a Mending. But for the
Separation Maker has wrought, we who live in the Laurel would be vanished from the earth and there would be none here to sit in Council.
All of us are still in the world, but the Shadowfolk cannot see us and we cannot touch
them. To their minds we are not real, and to us, they are unfettered death." (page 85)As the council proceeds it developed that Bard was thought to have come into the Laurel and caused the fear that others with wicked intent might find a way in to make havoc.
Like the on-going problem of illegal immigrants, it became the problem of immigrants per se; the 'good people of the USA' are thought to be confronted with illegal "wetbacks".
It's a place, but also a state of mind!
When I wrote the words you quote, illegal immigration was the last thought in my mind. I was thinking a good deal at the time about the on-going problem of corporate entities buying up our government, mercenaries taking over organized religion, professing Christians living as practical atheists, material acquisition preached as spiritual virtue, Shadow is where we are living. Shadow is what we have become. Still, Laurel beckons, for those with eyes to see her.
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