The Other Me, The Other You

I sometimes wonder if we all have alternate versions of ourselves - if we're all really Superman or Wonderwoman masquerading as writers and architects. Then I stop and think to myself -maybe that's who the superheroes are. Writergirl. Architectboy. And my mind, the way it always is with its auto-movie-associations, flings to Michael Douglas calling out for the triumph of his own Wonderboy amidst a sea of naysayers.

I know, I'm rambling tonight. I lie awake and I think about the others who have gone before me, who move stridently down the yellow brick road or leap tall buildings in a single bound. I think about the hero I would become. Could become. Am becoming. In another life, I dreamed I could be an architect. It's easy for me, the visualization. The numbers of it on the other hand, are beyond me. Gaudi's curves, Corbusier's clean lines...the thought and the action, all in one breath.

What does writing have to do with architecture, you ask? Nothing. Everything. It's all creation, isn't it? And that is what I wish to give to the world. I wish to free each and every one of us to create. I can see it all in my head...the building so grand in scale but so light, so free. A puzzle so intricate, interlocking need and beauty. Space for the painters, the dancers, the violinist...If I had the head for it I would work out an algorithm of space and place and time - x feet in y location for z need. Music room. Painting studio. Gallery. Barre. All free and open for anybody with the heart for art. I believe in it enough to say that it is important. Art and books and knowledge and experience open us up to a world we may otherwise never have known. Where would I have been, had my grandparents not introduced me to musicals? Had my parents not introduced me to books?

I am thankful for the knowledge, for the gift of learning, for the gift of seeing what is possible in the world. I am thankful for those with the head for putting together the architectural puzzles and for making them somewhat comprehensible to the rest of us. One day, hopefully not too far away, I will make it happen. I will solve the puzzle. Writergirl to save the day!