The Shakers of Pleasant Hill truly lived in a world with a view. There is no end to those views. Here are just a few.
This past weekend, my husband, daughter and I drove out to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill - a place I simply love. The timeless and simple architecture, situated on the rolling hills of Kentucky countryside, can only be experienced first hand. “Shaker style was defined from the beginning by their unswerving focus upon the goal of creating heaven on earth. Functionality was everything. Building designs could be both functional and beautiful, but the beauty had to be inherent in the design itself ....” (Catherine L. Carter and Martha E. Geores, University of Maryland) For more information on the Shakers visit: http://gorabs.org/journal/issu/2006/GOR01_01_carter.pdf This visit, I found myself especially taken with architect Micajah Burnett's use of natural light. He was seventeen years old, in 1809, when his parents brought him to live with the Shakers. At the age of twenty-three, he began to design the village here in Kentucky. The Shakers of Pleasant Hill truly lived in a world with a view. There is no end to those views. Here are just a few. Written (and photographed ) by Courtney Snyder.
Post written by Courtney Snyder
I’ve been thinking about the Broken Window Theory since attending a meeting on the litter problem in an industrial neighborhood here in Louisville. The theory says, if you keep urban environments in a well-ordered condition, ie. replace broken windows and control graffiti and litter, you may prevent further vandalism and possibly more serious crime. Though I don’t break windows, paint on trains or litter, my desk is often a mess. And when it is, I have less respect for my work and I don’t put things away. When it’s orderly, I feel good and I want to keep it that way. Even my thesaurus knows we can’t separate our mindset from our visual world. Clutter: mess, litter, disorder, untidiness and confusion. “I don’t have as much clutter as I used to and I certainly don’t have as much as clutter as she does,” I can tell myself. But the best rationalizations and projections don’t matter as much as the question, “Am I living the life I want to be living?” Our life is frittered away by detail…..Simplify, simplify. - Henry David Thoreau Thoreau could have said, “Our time, energy and true selves are frittered away by clutter - those collections of things that aren’t useful, meaningful, nor bring joy to our lives. Which all leads me to wonder about the cost of my clutter? WASTES:
DEMORALIZES:
ME: I like the image of my family playing cards. And, don’t some card games require more than one deck? (I wouldn’t know this because …. my family doesn’t play cards.) CARDS/ CRITICAL SELF: What?! You have not made your family into a card playing family?!??! KIND/WISE SELF (Think Maria Von Trapp meets Mary Poppins for this one): You may not be a card playing family, but you are a 20 questions family, a walking in the neighborhood together family, and a hiking family. Must you be every kind of family? With this and the discovery that three of the four sets are incomplete, I begin to send the cards into the trash. CARDS/CRITICAL SELF: Wait!!!. Couldn’t you do something artistic with three incomplete sets? Shouldn’t you be the kind of artist that only uses recycled materials? WISE/KIND SELF: You really don’t have enough room to collect all the things that you could possibly do art with. All this stuff is getting in the way of the art you want to do right now. It’s okay to let go of the recycling art dream, because your bigger dream is waiting for you to get started. You can’t if you’re kicking yourself for not being a card playing artist or a playing card artist. In THE END the three incomplete sets are gone. They can no longer tell me I’m a bad parent and artist. The fourth set – the complete one survives… for now. KEEPS ME IN THE PAST:
ME: These things had meaning at some time, but now?? GRANDIOSE SELF: Well….. maybe someone, someday will want these things, you know to open a museum, a presidential library of sorts,.... WISE/ KIND ME: But isn’t your reality, that you are grounded and connected to family, friends, place and your current life? With this thought, I keep weeding through the items my mother and I have saved. At present, I think I’ll keep my baby book, a baby dress, select photos, my journals, letters to and from my parents, husband and a couple of lifetime friends – the things that carry meaning for me now and that I may want in the future for inspiration or comfort. I find that as I get rid of things that don’t matter, I am able to see what does. As in life, I hope I can turn these large boxes of stuff into one smaller box of meaningful treasures. Stay tuned if you're thinking, "I could get rid of all this clutter, but I have a child and it is the year 2011!" Now that’s a different story! Is it really? Does it have to be? I’ll be wrestling with that one next. In the meantime, I’ll be trying to channel that all wise and compassionate mother with Julie Andrew’s voice ….for myself and for my daughter. For those without children, stay tuned. I’m also learning some practical ways to remove clutter and keep it from getting into my house. All this inevitably leads to tackling relationship clutter, activity clutter and emotional clutter. |
I am an artist, psychiatrist and mother.
I live in Louisville, Kentucky with my husband and daughter. Categories
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