They're Back...

INCIDENT:
Those little buggers are back and they are really wearing me down.

MORAL:
I think I am at my end. Who knew something so little could break me down like this...

Think like a Chemist

INCIDENT:
Today I had a substitute professor for my intro to chemistry course. He said that we should "think like chemists" in that chemists believe that structure and function are related. This of course is in reference to atoms and the like, but it reminded me of a fundamental tenant of modern architecture - form follows function. Louis Sullivan made this phrase famous in the late 19th century. He believed that architecture had to reconcile nature with science and technology.

MORAL:
"Form follows function" is open to interpretation. At the time of Sullivan it referred to doing away with ornamentation, which was associated with the classical style. Technology allowed architects to think creatively and redefine the dominant paradigm. It is amazing how this idea has not persisted in the majority of architecture built today. It is sadly obvious that not much is thought about in the design of the majority of architecture today. Aren't we due for a new style?

History is the Study of Change

INCIDENT:
I went to see the film "Half Nelson." It's the story of an inner city school teacher with a drug addiction. He finds some hope when he befriends one of his students. This of course is an oversimplification. Just go see the movie.

Anyhow, he teaches his students U.S. civil rights based on the theory of dialectics -- that change is the product of opposing forces. For example, in the civil rights movement there was a minority of people, who believed in equality, placed in opposition with a majority of people, who believed in segregation. It was through the opposition of these two forces that change occurred in U.S. culture and policy in the form of Brown v. Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock Nine, etc.

MORAL:
It is the intensity of opposing extremes that spur change in the masses. The same is true for individuals. We approach life with at least a general idea of where we are heading. Do we want a family? What do we want to do for a career? Where do we want to live? The specifics for attaining those "goals" get teased out in the day-to-day. But often in our path we are confronted with ideas or circumstances that conflict with our plans. How dedicated are we to our path when we are met with these obstacles? With just one more nugget of information, would we have made completely different choices in our life? Would we be the same person?

Championing Mediocrity

INCIDENT:
Last week the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation unveiled the designs for three new towers on the World Trade Center site. These towers were designed by no slouches - Lord Richard Rogers (of Centre Pompidou and Millennium Dome fame), Lord Norman Foster (Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate 1999), and Fumihiko Maki (Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate 1993). When you hire some of the most prominent modern architects of our day and pair them with a highly charged and significant site, you should get innovative responsible designs that reflect recent technologies and complex design concepts... Right? But apparently that is not something that you can assume...

Images from the New York Times

MORAL:

Lower Manhattan Development Corporation

New York Times - At Ground Zero, Towers for Forgetting

World Trade Center

There are incredibly complex factors at play with the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Everyone wants to have(and probably should have)a say in the process - victims' families, developers, survivors, the architecture community, New Yorkers, financiers, etc. But the biggest factor effecting the quality of the designs is clearly economical. Of course LMDC wants to pack in as much profitable square footage. But to what end? The whole process is frustrating... there was so much hope for something better.

Building Relationships

INCIDENT:
Over the past week my friends have started relationships, not started relationships, broken up with their long term partners, gotten back with past lovers, or have become engaged. It has been quite the week.

MORAL:

"In your life, you meet people. Some you never think about again. Some, you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again. But you do."

How can relationships be so complicated? I never really thought about it before cause I always thought of relationships as extensions of friendships. But I guess friendships take some work as well. All relationships, romantic or platonic, take nurturing, faith, respect, devotion, and loyalty. Perhaps one difference is that you make yourself completely vunerable in romantic relationships in ways that you don't in friendships. We are perhaps more cautious when starting romantic relationships for this reason. On the other hand in friendships we have the ability to regulate how vunerable we make ourselves and in that light we can maintain these type of relationships longer. Or so one may think.

As people come and go in our lives, each fills in another part of the puzzle that is life. For good or for bad, it is the inherent nature of relationships.

Little Buggers

INCIDENT:
Bugs. Lots of them. And all different kinds. Probably the worst roommates... ever.

MORAL:

Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.

- Arthur Golden

When faced with the unexpected we can either rise to the occasion or falter under our inadequacies. Relatively minor challenges can reveal weaknesses that we do not want to admit to or expose to others.

Choice Tree

INCIDENT:
I am slowly and painfully learning the implications of choosing a new apartment. In the past this was a choice I took for granted... or maybe I was just lucky. But this move has been challenging to say the least. Perhaps it is the bombardment of novel situations that is throwing me for a loop or I could just be becoming an adult... I don't know which one is more difficult to deal with...

MORAL:

It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.

- Donald Miller

Even though most of us feel like we have set habits or schedules, change is occurring all the time. It is inevitable. And all of these small changes equate to a larger outcome in our lives. Each choice or decision modifies our path in slight but significant ways. Deciding to go out instead of stay in might result in a new friendship or the strengthening of an existing relationship. It could also have implications that are not yet evident. Other decisions have far reaching impacts. For example moving to a new domicile can have epic implications - who we spend time with, where we shop, our modes of transportation, how we spend our days, etc. These types of decisions effect our lives in ways that are immediately apparent. And it is perhaps this distinction that makes those choices so scary. But in the long run all choices - big or small - have the potential to change our world significantly.