Our Buildings

There is nothing worse that when our good intentions and inventions turn against us.  We set out to make things better for ourselves and move toward a nicer future without seeing the consequences that will also follow.  We are blind to them because of the bright shining vision of the perfected future we hope to build.

Just the other day I walked out of a building and was shocked how beautiful it was.  It was sunny but cool, there was a slight breeze and the smell of fall was in the air.  I wanted to sit in the grass and read a book, write, or just sit quietly and think.

I was missing the out of doors because life is increasingly getting centered indoors.  Buildings were made to serve us, protect us from the caprice of bad weather.  But they have come to hold us prisoner.  They are no longer a place to escape to but a place from where we should escape.  The walls and roof that keep out the wind, cold and rain also keep out the sounds the smells and the joy of nature.  And yet that is where we spend our time.  It’s because that is where we put our stuff, and without our things we are increasingly useless.

As I stood outside in a perfect afternoon I thought of the building that I had left.  It was not to my liking. 

It had a manufactured feel.  It was definitely man made.  The walls were confining, barriers that dictated, walk here, and congregate there.  The spacing dictated economy of materials.  Rooms were made to serve a purpose and no more.  The walls were also a barrier to elements.  Outside was kept out.  Inside there was the hum of the air conditioning machine.  The air was cold, machine processed and manufactured.  It was trapped, caught in the buildings grasp, cycled and recycled making its rounds countless times.  I was cutoff from something better.

For most of the year the weather is inclement.  Being outdoors is no pleasure.  And so we have our buildings.  But the cost is that we are stuck to them, tied down.  When the weather is nice we cannot enjoy it.  We are forgetting how to function outside.   Too much time is spent indoors. 

I imagine I am writing this because it is so nice out.  I would rather be playing Frisbee and bike riding and reading beneath a tree than doing anything indoors.  So don’t mind me.  Soon enough I will be very grateful for walls and roofs and machine heated air because winter is not far off.  And winter is no friend to me.