Diversions

that make you really think.

Citizen Architect made me do that tonight. Wow. What a show.

For some reason I linked Samuel Mockbee with Sheldon Brown a few moments after watching that film and absorbing it.

Both of these men stricken down in their prime by a disease, robbed of their full gift to the human race, but having given enough to gain immortality in their own right and circle.

What bike mechanic doesn't know the name Sheldon Brown. If you wrench and don't? Shame on you. Saint Sheldon Brown as anointed by The Church of The Big Ring. I get goosebumps reading that post. I get goosebumps way too much but that's a different matter all together.

Anyway, growing up I had this desire to be an Architect for a while, before I discovered what Naval Architecture was and before I headed off to do a 3/2 program at a liberal arts college but wound up leaving with honors and distinction in botany - crazy kid, yeah.

Two books stood out, one by Stanley Tigerman, and another was a how to build your own house. The latter I memorized practically. Parts that sunk in still to this day are the year round survey. Figure out what the land does before trying to impose your will. Learn where the vista is, where the vernal springs are, where does the sun rise and fall through out the year.

Stuff like that. Things I imagine maybe Mockbee would have taught.

I'm god damn good at what I do, there's no question, but occasionally I capture a glimpse through an outstanding film like "Citizen Architect" and wonder what if...

What if...

I still have plans for my dream house. And I can still visualize them. The one change I would have to make is to kill the garage full of cars and create a kick ass bike shop in there instead. The cars can stay outside.

People say things happen for a reason, I don't buy it. Things just happen, you figure out as you go, there is no rhyme or reason, it just is, move on, make do and keep going minding your mounting responsibilities as you go.

Mockbee started the rural studio just before I graduated from college, and i doubt even if I had managed to swing a degree change or had gone to a different school that i would have wound up there or something like it. But man, that Eisenman dude is a giant douche (at least as protrayed in the film) - wow.

Sleep is beaconing me. No more time to reflect on what ifs and what might have beens, time to focus on the here and now, the present and make the most for the future on the path unfurling in front of me.

heddwch
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