One of the reasons I got out of the architecture field after my undergraduate studies (other than the realization that I would never be the type of grade-A professional my perfectionism wanted me to be) was my experience as an intern at an architectural firm. It was not a bad experience. The work I did gave me a very true picture of the profession as a whole. I enjoyed my co-workers and spent a good deal of time that summer with the other interns at my firm. But it made me realize that the true joys of my schooling would be even fewer and further between once I got out into the ‘real world’. Hampered by dealing with a variety of contractors and businessmen and even other architects wanting to do things their way, and hedged in by building codes and various zoning laws, I would never be able to reach over to a client and come up with a solution thi their problem that merely suited us both. I would never be able to express the extreme edge of problem-solving that comes from a truly artful and delicate solution – something that works in addition to being beautiful, or is beautiful for the way it works so effectively.
Is this not true in every profession? Are we not all weighted down by some nameless, faceless redundancy that seems to make all our effort for the greater good, or even the focused, honest use of our skills, in vain? Doctors and nurses deal with the insurance industry, teachers deal with various administrations and school boards, and even librarians must deal with the furor of local politics. The complexity and density of modern life requires that we have certain structures in order to interact with each other. These bureaucracies are often handicaps when immediate action is needed, but I think we would ultimately fair little better without them. If so, how can we do the best for our world? Pushing forward, one mired step at a time? Individually or in small groups bucking the various systems in place? What is progress, and how do we move forward from here? I would like to think I could do a little more than give money to a good cause. I would like to think that by doing what I loved, by taking my skills and using them, by making the world a little more beautiful and therefore perhaps a bit better, that I am accomplishing something with lasting meaning. But I don’t have the scope to understand my own actions on a daily basis, let alone the true worth of one human life.
Water Ouzel 
Leave a comment