The uncertainty of routine

<body>The Uncertainty of Routine <img style="width: 455px; height: 512px;" src="/issues/76/images/editor%5Fchirico.jpg" border="0">   editorial It’s real fun writing the editorial when everything has miraculously settled into place: the articles flow like the morning prayer - laden with intentions yet leaving space for the readers’ interpretation; the pictures look modestly yet sharply at a reality dependent on no-one’s, not even mine; and the captions, divest of any extra schmaltz, depict with minimum words the most that can be drawn out of each building -  the constraints in bringing about its completion, as we know, far exceeding the good intentions imbued in its planning. Routine is the automatic pilot of our lives; a sequence of good or bad habits without which it’s hard to navigate the day. Every day a volley of rockets on the western Negev, every other day a rewarded retaliation, every week - a weekend, every month VAT, every year income tax, every two years elections, every four years a “visit” to Gaza, every six - a Hizbullation war, every eight - an intifada, and every ten - an earthquake in Japan, a flood in the USA or a tornado in the stock-exchange. “Habit is the beneficent harness of routine which enables silly men to live respectfully and unhappy men to live calmly”, said the Victorian writer Mary Ann Evans, and decided to use the masculine pen name of George Eliot, so that women too would read her novels. I haven’t yet decided what is better - to be a fool and live in dignity on architecture, or to let my habits keep me miserable by going on writing about architecture in a world that long has only gimmicks, gadgets, and empty spaces - on our side, but especially on theirs. Luckily, in every routine there is also an element of uncertainty, which lends each doing a bit of expectation, without which even the most enjoyable routines could end with dissatisfaction. These words are being written with the elections imminent, while the voices of the forced war are still screeching with uncertainty. No-one yet knows how Evett’s “immigration” will impact Israel, whether the spring knows it has to come already, or the summer will fall upon us with the wrath of a shaming drought. It’s a fools’ consolation that, in spite of the global economy slump, our war is still producing work for the building industry - here and there, but especially there. Somebody cynically suggested building up Gaza “modularly", but then the architects, who are extremely worried about tomorrow, would be superfluous - which may yet be our consolation. I think it will be fun writing the editorial when all has miraculously settled into place. george eliot junior p.s. dr. ami ran   </body>

חזרה לגליון 76 back to issue 76

בניית אתרי אינטרנט