It was 2 a.m. and unusual I wasn't asleep by now. Maybe it was celebratory debris still in the air from a day of birthday events. To finally be 10 years old was monumental; things would probably change now, at least I thought they should. More responsibility, fewer rules, and yes more allowance. The type of allowance that would upgrade my hobby set to one more representative of a kid on the move.
I thought I’d begin the first day of my second decade by separating my tithe from my other money so I wouldn’t spend it. I looked all around the hotel room for a safe place to keep the 10 silver dollars my aunt sent for my birthday. We’d be home tomorrow so I just needed a place for the night away from my brother and sister’s view. I found the golden location. Behind the water faucets at the bottom rear of the toilet, no one can see it...I perfectly stacked my ten silver dollars there.
The dollars were hidden so well I thought I would forget them, maybe that’s why I was still up staring into the darkness. Surely I wouldn’t leave in the morning and forget to crawl down there and retrieve them. Seemingly just when my thoughts were finally turning towards sleep a figure moved in the room. At first I wasn’t sure whether it was my brother or sister getting up for a restroom trip, but something deep inside told me not to make a sound.
In an effort not to make a noise I kept my head still and starting watching only with the east to west movement of my eyes. I watched as the figure started to emerge out of the darkness of the unlit room. My eyes had been open for awhile and had taken hold of the moon rays. “Oh my God!” I uttered in my heart, “A man is in our hotel room.” He slowly moved from one piece of luggage to the next, then to my mothers’ purse removing her wallet, credit cards and identification. By this time fear had set in so firmly that I was unsure whether I could actually move if I wanted to. My body felt heavier than ever before as if I was in a straight jacket with an anchor on my chest.
The man, by this time I was sure it was a man, proceeded to rummage through my father’s pants leg pulling out the few dollars he had. It ran through my mind how this burglar must not know my dad is a minister. Does he understand you can’t steal from a pastor? Has no one told him this?
My fear partnered with frustration, and then anger as my ten-year-old mind attempted to process how my parents would feel once they found out we had been robbed. Lost on me was the tangible danger my family was actually in. I knew not if his plan was to kill all six of us, or harm us physically in any way.
I do know that as soon as he appeared he was gone and I would have credited my memory to a nightmare had it not been for the police sirens that stirred me awake the next morning. I got up repeatedly asking, “Dad what happened?” His only reply, "We’ve been robbed" he then turned back to the police officer and continued speaking.
As if flashcards where thrust in my face, I immediately recalled everything that happened the night before. With a shaking voice and sweaty hands I shouted with my eyes shut tight. “I saw the Man!” The policeman stopped writing. My father turned sharply with a look of disbelief and horror and slowly asked me, “You saw him? Yes, I replied…"I was up late because I couldn’t sleep and I saw this man walking in the room," I continued, “I didn’t want to wake anybody because I was scared to death. I wasn't sure what he would do.” I went on to explain how he went through my mothers' purse, took her wallet, identification and everything else she had and then left as quickly as he came…I heard my father murmur under his voice. “He took everything officer, he took all the money we had." I paused, pulled on my dad’s elbow and said, "Wait,
I hid my tithe.”
Friday, June 13, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Hell is Hot and Gas is High
Two observations, only one of which is new. Gas is moving higher, Wall Street is moving lower, and jobs continue to move overseas. It seems as if the American public is caught in a terrible B movie. Unfortunately, neither congress, OPEC, nor anyone else in the energy complex is yelling “Cut!”
Now that we understand there is no concern for Joe Public or his ability to afford driving to work, many things will change. Many people are paying closer attention now more than ever before to what their senator, congressman, and even what the local county officials are doing. Gas, and its price, has had the unintended affect of causing Americans to wake up, sit up, and take names.
When a retired worker has to decide whether to buy gas, food, or medicine, she doesn’t forget the face on the evening news promising everything is just fine. For the sake of completeness, there are many who blame their current financial woes on gas, when in actuality, they were just as financially irresponsible when gas was $1.25. For the other half, who are hard working, skilled and educated, these prices will forever change the political landscape.
I, for one, do not believe in “punishing” the oil companies for making profit. There is, however, an authentic case to be made when the nature of your product is a necessity for a civil society to operate. Selling a $5000 Versace suit, acceptable. Selling a $5000 gallon of water, unacceptable.
The quality of deception that engulfs the average American concerning Wall Street is fascinating. This period of high energy prices has made one point with clarity; Wall Street is not your friend. The cold hard reality is that The Street is in the business of making money from your expense. You invest so they can trade. You buy so they can sell. You lock up your retirement funds in financial products so the managers can make pro forma projections to other investors. In other words, they garner copious now money on the basis of your future funds. That’s the game. Don’t hate, adjust.
Here’s the good news. Twenty years from now I predict the number of American billionaires will quadruple when compared to the previous twenty years. Why? Because the economy is squeezing the talented and the untalented alike. The result? Inventions will be made, products marketed, services conceived by many who are now unemployed, unfulfilled or both.
There are literally thousands of people who will, out of frustrated inspiration, create that new Apple or Google idea that can only be birthed out of economic pain. So in a sense, we should thank all forces involved with obscene gas prices. When all is said and done, this gas is fueling our future wealth.
Now that we understand there is no concern for Joe Public or his ability to afford driving to work, many things will change. Many people are paying closer attention now more than ever before to what their senator, congressman, and even what the local county officials are doing. Gas, and its price, has had the unintended affect of causing Americans to wake up, sit up, and take names.
When a retired worker has to decide whether to buy gas, food, or medicine, she doesn’t forget the face on the evening news promising everything is just fine. For the sake of completeness, there are many who blame their current financial woes on gas, when in actuality, they were just as financially irresponsible when gas was $1.25. For the other half, who are hard working, skilled and educated, these prices will forever change the political landscape.
I, for one, do not believe in “punishing” the oil companies for making profit. There is, however, an authentic case to be made when the nature of your product is a necessity for a civil society to operate. Selling a $5000 Versace suit, acceptable. Selling a $5000 gallon of water, unacceptable.
The quality of deception that engulfs the average American concerning Wall Street is fascinating. This period of high energy prices has made one point with clarity; Wall Street is not your friend. The cold hard reality is that The Street is in the business of making money from your expense. You invest so they can trade. You buy so they can sell. You lock up your retirement funds in financial products so the managers can make pro forma projections to other investors. In other words, they garner copious now money on the basis of your future funds. That’s the game. Don’t hate, adjust.
Here’s the good news. Twenty years from now I predict the number of American billionaires will quadruple when compared to the previous twenty years. Why? Because the economy is squeezing the talented and the untalented alike. The result? Inventions will be made, products marketed, services conceived by many who are now unemployed, unfulfilled or both.
There are literally thousands of people who will, out of frustrated inspiration, create that new Apple or Google idea that can only be birthed out of economic pain. So in a sense, we should thank all forces involved with obscene gas prices. When all is said and done, this gas is fueling our future wealth.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Even the Buildings Sing
Great architecture is frozen music. A melody that stretches long into the sky returning each day for an encore. Architecture can fasten itself to the heart of the beholder. If great architecture is music, Tadao Ando is the master conductor. Born in Osaka, Japan on September 13, 1941, Ando was the first born of twin boys. He grew up spending his time making wooden models of ships and airplanes, skills he learned from a gracious carpenter that lived across the street from his family home. Ando has the “it” factor, that hard to define, intangible charisma.
Whether it is his physical similarity to The Beatles, (he looks amazingly like the 5th Beatle), or just the calm confidence he exudes. Whatever it is, he’s got “it.”
In his early twenties, Ando began to sense that architectural design was in his blood. Just to make sure, he tried his hand at several professions. He spent time as a truck driver and a boxer. His small stature and meek appearance may not have fit well within such physical occupations. Returning to his senses, Ando concentrated on architecture.
With little means, and no pedigree, he found himself without any practical tools to enter the industry. It was upon this realization that he made the decision that changed his life. Ando decided that if he couldn’t study in the great institutions, he would study the results of its students. His lack of education worked to twist fate in his favor. He knew intuitively that the work all around him was the result of architects, many of whom had been to the greatest learning centers. To study their work was to go to class.
First, he took a tour of Japan and studied the local temples, shrines, and tea houses. He then found his way to Europe, Africa and the United States. Ando learned about architecture by visiting great architecture, a rather simple philosophy. He credits great reading such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Alvar Aalto as having great impact on how he processed the works he physically visited.
Ironically, his skill has granted him invitation to teach in the same institutions he did not attend, including: Tokyo University, Yale, Harvard and Columbia. There is a greatness that can only be found in the work of an artist untouched by the institutionalized education process. Ando is the perfect example of this.
One of the most awe-inspiring pieces of work credited to Ando is The Church of The Light in Osaka, Japan. This house of worship is one of the most fascinating pieces work, religious or otherwise. Its genius is not in the grandeur of its size or intricacy of wall paintings, but the courage to allow nature to create is own surrounding without human intervention. The sanctuary sits such that the suns rays create an image of a cross that illuminates the entire room with its glow. Absolutely breathtaking.
Architectural awards granted to Ando are too numerous to number, the most notable are: French Academy of Architecture, Carlsberg Architectural Prize, Denmark, Japan Art Academy Prize, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, Praemium Imperiale First “FRATE SOLE” Award in Architecture, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), AIA Gold Medal, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Notable projects that have met critical acclaim include: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, UK, House in Shiga, Ōtsu, Shiga, Japan, Benesse House, Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan, and 21_21 Design Sight, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Every once and awhile comes a designer who truly understands his proportion in the great scheme of nature, and consequently designs from a refreshing, uncluttered humility. Tadao Ando is such an architect. The New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger commenting on the work of Ando states, "Ando is right in the Japanese tradition: spareness has always been a part of Japanese architecture, at least since the 16th century; [and] it is not for nothing that Frank Lloyd Wright more freely admitted to the influences of Japanese architecture than of anything American.”
Tadao Ando is a true original, one who learns by sight and feel. When asked in a 2001 interview in Milan, Italy whether he reads architectural design magazines Ando responded, “I don’t read them, I just look at the pictures.”
Whether it is his physical similarity to The Beatles, (he looks amazingly like the 5th Beatle), or just the calm confidence he exudes. Whatever it is, he’s got “it.”
In his early twenties, Ando began to sense that architectural design was in his blood. Just to make sure, he tried his hand at several professions. He spent time as a truck driver and a boxer. His small stature and meek appearance may not have fit well within such physical occupations. Returning to his senses, Ando concentrated on architecture.
With little means, and no pedigree, he found himself without any practical tools to enter the industry. It was upon this realization that he made the decision that changed his life. Ando decided that if he couldn’t study in the great institutions, he would study the results of its students. His lack of education worked to twist fate in his favor. He knew intuitively that the work all around him was the result of architects, many of whom had been to the greatest learning centers. To study their work was to go to class.
First, he took a tour of Japan and studied the local temples, shrines, and tea houses. He then found his way to Europe, Africa and the United States. Ando learned about architecture by visiting great architecture, a rather simple philosophy. He credits great reading such as Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, and Alvar Aalto as having great impact on how he processed the works he physically visited.
Ironically, his skill has granted him invitation to teach in the same institutions he did not attend, including: Tokyo University, Yale, Harvard and Columbia. There is a greatness that can only be found in the work of an artist untouched by the institutionalized education process. Ando is the perfect example of this.
One of the most awe-inspiring pieces of work credited to Ando is The Church of The Light in Osaka, Japan. This house of worship is one of the most fascinating pieces work, religious or otherwise. Its genius is not in the grandeur of its size or intricacy of wall paintings, but the courage to allow nature to create is own surrounding without human intervention. The sanctuary sits such that the suns rays create an image of a cross that illuminates the entire room with its glow. Absolutely breathtaking.
Architectural awards granted to Ando are too numerous to number, the most notable are: French Academy of Architecture, Carlsberg Architectural Prize, Denmark, Japan Art Academy Prize, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, Praemium Imperiale First “FRATE SOLE” Award in Architecture, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France, Royal Gold Medal, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), AIA Gold Medal, and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
Notable projects that have met critical acclaim include: Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, UK, House in Shiga, Ōtsu, Shiga, Japan, Benesse House, Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan, and 21_21 Design Sight, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Every once and awhile comes a designer who truly understands his proportion in the great scheme of nature, and consequently designs from a refreshing, uncluttered humility. Tadao Ando is such an architect. The New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger commenting on the work of Ando states, "Ando is right in the Japanese tradition: spareness has always been a part of Japanese architecture, at least since the 16th century; [and] it is not for nothing that Frank Lloyd Wright more freely admitted to the influences of Japanese architecture than of anything American.”
Tadao Ando is a true original, one who learns by sight and feel. When asked in a 2001 interview in Milan, Italy whether he reads architectural design magazines Ando responded, “I don’t read them, I just look at the pictures.”
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