Architecture, Material Girls and the Travel Club

My Travel Club, this week, sponsored a lecture about World Architecture. It was fascinating and made me wish I was young again and that the world was still safe to roam around to see the wonders of the world. The slide show started off with the pyramids and ancients castles and worked its way through the great churches, cathedrals and other religious buildings up to modern day concoctions that you’d be hard pressed to decide if you were seeing a building or a giant pile of salvage metal discarded alongside a highway. The cutie pie who did the lecture was probably in his late thirties and he worked for a company that designs public buildings all over the world, including a hospital in Egypt. Interesting side note: One wall in each patient room had to have an angled wall that pointed toward Mecca so they’d always know which way to face during prayers.

I was smitten with the lecturer’s confidence, his world-traveler experiences and his knowledge-base of a field of study I have taken a deep interest in since before my teens. Computers and 3-D printers have taken over many aspects of the field, giving rise to new ways of working. In the past, architects always worked from the inside out. Now, they can draw weird or wonderfully shaped buildings and design from the outside in. He also gave an example of how computers have expanded design options: a mall walkway roof made entirely out of glass---millions of pieces, no two alike, and a computer figured out all the shapes and sizes then cut them and barcoded each one as they were automatically produced so a human could install them in the right order. New materials and technology have always pushed architects to explore their possibilities.

The lecture bought two other interesting things into my day. 1) I got there ten minutes early and had a great conversation with another widow, nine years out. She’s in my new book club and it was the first time she’d been to my travel club. That’s been happening a lot lately---I’ll see someone in several places that I’m just getting to know. And 2) After having a small etching plate print haunt me for nearly 50 years, I finally found out what it was. One of the slides the architect showed was of the same structure and it turned out to be the “Arche De Triumphal” also called a victory arch---this one in Paris. They were first built by the Ancient Romans to commemorate someone conquering something and the tradition continued to where they’re all over Europe. I sold my print last summer and regretted it almost immediately. 

Yes, I am a Material Girl and I struggle with changing that aspect of my personality, not really sure I want to do it because I’m not dead yet and I still enjoy my stuff. If you remember Ms. Poetry from another blog entry (A Walk in the Woods) each morning on her Facebook page she has something from a site called ‘Becoming a Minimalist.’ We lived near a minimalist once; he borrowed everything from his neighbors so he and his wife didn’t have to buy or keep the tools it takes to maintain a house yet they bragged about how they’d simplified their lives. Great, learn to rent a floor scrubber or wet/dry shop vac instead of putting extra wear on your neighbor’s. 

Today’s message from The Minimalist site was: “Your life is too valuable to waste it chasing possessions.” How is it a waste if you enjoy the chase? Half my husband’s life was based on hunting old and obsolete things. Someone has to chase things like every Thomas Edison or Roy Rogers thingamabob ever invented otherwise they’d never end up in museums a 100 years later. I’ve already done two major downsizings in my recent history, and half my current frustrations come from feeling guilty for not doing more downsizing so my family doesn’t have to do it when I die. The other half of my frustrations come from being resentful that one day I might have to live in a couple of sterile rooms with no character or conversation pieces. I am fascinated by people who want to join the ‘tiny living’ movement but please don’t tell me I’ve wasted my life because I don’t want to live in 200 square feet with just two coffee cups and an iPad.

The day after the lecture I might as well have been a mushroom growing in a dark cave. My job list required dry weather and it rained and I didn’t have enough common sense to write a new one. I didn’t accomplish anything except writing a check for my snow removal service for this coming winter and taking a call about my upcoming bone infusion. Maybe I was just resting up for next twenty-five days when I have nineteen appointments/events on my day planner. I enjoy fall, long job lists always come with the season. ©

NOTE: The photo at the top of is Park Guell, a public park in Barcelona designed by Antonio Gaudi, a famous architect known for his colorful and playful designs, circa 1900. I could not live with that much color in my life but it would be fun to visit.