Author: Mark Alexander

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Buried Treasure

The other day we made a run to our rented storage unit to leave stuff we can’t have at the new domicile (mainly things we kept in the garage at the old place— because we no longer have a garage).

While there, I noticed a box that I knew contained the large framed portraits of the material great-grandparents; something that had hung over the sofa in our family’s living room for as long as I can remember. After my mom’s passing a decade and a half ago I acquired them with hopes of having them reframed and hung somewhere in my house. That never happened, so at some point there were thrown in that box along with a couple of my paintings and a rather graphic AIDS awareness poster from San Francisco…not touched again in the last decade. I elected to drag the box back to the house with us with the intention of giving them to my sister who I knew would appreciate having them far more than I (even without reframing) and find a place to display them in her home.

After she’d come by and picked them up, I was about to haul the box out to the trash, but it seemed heavy for just a box of it size. I reached down into the box and squealed. There was a roll of 18″ x 24″ architectural drawings at the bottom.

Carefully unrolling them on the coffee table, they brought out a curious mix of emotions. I remembered making each and every one of them, but I’d assumed that they were long gone; lost years ago during one move or another.

Once upon a time I knew how to draw by hand—without a computer—a complete set of plans to build a house, a testament to just how much skill and knowledge I’ve lost since abandoning the architectural profession. I knew how the framing went together, the thicknesses, heights, and widths of various building materials, as well as how a window or door were set and anchored into a wall and what kind of flashing and weatherstripping was required. I knew how to draw a wiring schematic, laying out switches, lights, and outlets. I knew how plumbing worked.

Although I’m sure all that knowledge is still locked away somewhere in the recesses of my mind, it’s definitely in cold storage and even if I were to take up the profession again tomorrow, I seriously doubt I’d be able to hit the ground running. (Plus, technology has changed a bit since the 90s.)

I almost want to get the lot of the drawings digitized for easy access; I may have to look into that once things settle down here. (In the meantime however, I will post some photographs in the next few days as a teaser of what all I found at the bottom of that box. Stay tuned.)

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Welcome to Western Civilization!

Reposted from Doug Holland:

Have you ever wondered why there’s so much mental illness and suicide all around us? So many people who seem damaged, deluded, wounded, weary, discombobulated, or simply malfunctional?

From everything arrayed against sanity in our society, I marvel that there isn’t there more mental illness and suicide.

A coin flip at birth determines whether your life starts in a place where there’s running water, and a chance at education. Another random chance decides whether you’re of the locally-preferred color, religion, caste or class, etc, and whether you’re female, which brings lower status, less freedom, and fewer opportunities in virtually all societies.

If you’re lucky, you might be healthy, but that’s mostly beyond your control. If you’re extraordinarily lucky, you’ll enter the world with parents who’ll provide your baseline needs without beating you, raping you, or indoctrinating you into a cult, or more often a ‘non-cult’ (meaning, a religion that’s better-known but just as mind-warping) that instills lifelong expectations of subservience, obedience, and unquestioned faith, and teaches that your path will consist of work, marriage, and birthing another generation of children to be indoctrinated. Nobody comes through that unscathed, but a lot of people are so thoroughly indoctrinated that they pity the unscathed.

If you come through all that, and survive childhood, congratulations — you’re now way ahead in the game. Next, you’ll need to navigate employment or higher education, and housing, food, safety, and relationships for the rest of your life.

Any errors will be compounded with interest, meaning that if you’re not on a track toward  ‘success’ by age 18, then the ordinary kind of success is unlikely, and becomes increasingly unlikely as life goes on.

If you need help, charities and government agencies that exist to provide assistance will more efficiently provide obstacles to that assistance.

You’ll need whatever defenses you can stitch together against criminals, scammers, and continued societal expectations — Career! Marriage! Children! Shiny new stuff! 

And watch your step, because there are workplace and legal and religious and other systems set up to punish even the smallest deviations from the norm.

As years go by you might notice, as I did, that ‘the norm’ and ‘success’ seem less and less desirable or even tolerable.

All through this, much of the information and guidance available to you will be false, and sometimes maliciously false. The people who seem most trustworthy might be the least trustworthy. It’s no fun to be suspicious, but you’re what’s for dinner if you’re not.

All the above is a very brief, incomplete, blurry snapshot, of course. The details are far more insane.

So, welcome to western civilization! Hope you endure your stay.

If you’ve navigated the maze and still have your wits, health, and sanity, then you have beaten enormous odds. Please remember to reach out and help someone who’s struggling, and didn’t have the benefit of all your good luck.