So...I was reading an article called, "The Gospel of Wealth" and the humor in the very beginning of it hit home to me, peronally, right off the bat. (see link below)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/opinion/07brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
The writer, David Brooks, says:
"Maybe the first decade of the 21st century will come to be known as the great age of headroom. During those years, new houses had great rooms with 20-foot ceilings and entire new art forms had to be invented to fill the acres of empty overhead wall space.
People bought bulbous vehicles like Hummers and Suburbans. The rule was, The Smaller the Woman, the Bigger the Car — so you would see a 90-pound lady in tennis whites driving a 4-ton truck with enough headroom to allow her to drive with her doubles partner perched atop her shoulders. When future archeologists dig up the remains of that epoch, they will likely conclude that sometime around 1996, the U.S. was afflicted by a plague of claustrophobia and drove itself bankrupt in search of relief."
As soon as I read this, I immediately thought of my mom. We have two cars at out house. Both of them are Toyotas. One of them is a Tundra truck, the other is a Rav4. My mom is petite. Her favorite car is... Yep. You guessed it. The Tundra.
However, back to the article. It continues on to speak of how, in recent years, we have shrunk back slightly from that idea and are moving towards more practical ways of living. Although, I would have to disagree with what it says.
My brother, an architect, has worked on buildings for the modern age. Today's age. And things don't seem to be shrinking much...but they aren't expanding, either. It's almost as though we have found a size that suits us, and we feel that we need the space as though it were a subconscious way of saying, 'This is my house, and, yes, I bought it with my own money.' We use our houses as well as our churches to say, 'Look at me, look at my religion. We have money, we have power...', but on the other hand we're still trying to say that we're humble. Does something seem wrong with this picture? It should.
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At my house, we have a book called The Not So Big House, by Sarah Susanka, and it explains how to use a smaller house to its' wonderful advantage. You use it to the old adage..."A place for everything, and everything in its' place.", while at the same time, making feel as though it has space.
Recently, I lived in a house with a ridiculous amount of square footage...at least, for me and my parents. The basement alone added 1,200 sqare feet. However, whenever we had the rest of the family there, it felt as though it was almost filled. It was a modern house, which, if you pay attention, is made for hosting parties, for entertaining. A large foyer and kitchen with an open layout to a living room is almost something that we expect to see, along with sideboard lighting, open floors, and large countertops. All of this says one thing, 'I have money.'
However, my mom hated having all of the extra space because it was never used (though she still had to clean it, how it got dirty, I'll never know). We recently moved to a house that is practically identical to our previous house in every way...except it's much smaller, and way more usable. When a house is large, people tend to feel the need to fill it with things, unnecessary things, and waste money by doing so. When you take it down a few notches, you discover you don't need things...you only need what you need, and maybe a couple of things to make it your own.
This is the perfect example of how our society seems to change their values simply by their living space. When I lived at the other house, it was very easy not to see each other the whole day except for at dinner and in the evening when we watched television. Now, however, even when my mom and I are both on the computer, we can carry a conversation easily...even when one of us goes upstairs, we don't have to raise our voice very much to be heard, nor do we have to walk across the house.
We have become stronger in our faith as well within the home. We are more aware of each other, and notice the absence of someone in the home more easily; whereas, at the previous house someone could have left for a couple of hours and come back, and you wouldn't necessarily notice. (sorry, mommy, but it's true) Brooks makes a good observation about our society, but I wouldn't take everything he says at face value. Life in reference to space is changing, but it's not necessarily shrinking. However, I doubt we'll fall back into old habits. We've lived through it and we've learned...
...I hope.
Great post,honey!
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