I happen to believe it does. You know that there are no right angles in any of nature except some very hard rocks! Well, I celebrated the Rockies by designing my countertop tile at 60 degree angles, but lots of other things in my house are curved now.

One of my sayings is, “Fear creates corners in our fluid reality.”

The tipi experience sounds so wonderful.

Good luck to you on your “project of love.” It’s wonderful that you have made your place your own by your own hands. Somehow, it makes a person feel more closely connected to the natural world, doesn’t it?
I made a tipi once, on my old Singer sewing machine. My husband to be and I shaved our own lodgepole pine logs and lived in it in Wyoming. It was a lovely, sensual experience to be out there with only that thin covering (like a blanket wrapped around church poles) between us and the elements. There would be field mice parties taking place at night just before the first snows set in. And in the morning sun, the chattering squirrels would slide down the canvas with only the shadows of their little bellies and feet showing on our side. The first few nights, my husband would get lost inside when he went for a drink of water and I guide him back with my voice. (It’s hard to get your bearings in a circle in the dark, you know. We’re so dependent on angles. I’ve often wondered if that could influence a culture’s thinking!)
Anyway, all this is to say that I understand your connection to your lovely Ohio blue stone and all the other elements you’ve incorporated into your surroundings. It’s wonderful what you’re accomplishing.

But, even more important…..I chose to do most work on my house with my own efforts because there a deep satisfaction and freedom in hands-on manifesting my own ideas about design. [Sort of like choosing to breast-feed one’s child]. I bought this house about 30 years ago [for $15,000] and today, my home is, I think, lovely, unique, and now filled with ‘my own manna’. Some projects take a very long time.

Years ago I taught myself to lay stone [Ohio blue stone]. To get to my basement laundry room, I walk down four curving stone steps to a 17x 9 foot stone floor, then down another six curving stone steps to descend to the laundry. Now, I hate to tell you how long that whole project took in all. [Each single step took about a week]. But for years now, I have been rewarded with real pleasure in just going to the laundry room. In winter, that stone is heated. It cost me about $1,800. to do a whole radiant system that would have cost some $12,000 contracted out.

Here is part of a poem [Ruth Bebermeyer] that comes to mind as I read your ‘question for yourself’:
‘Poets put in prison
because they will not kill.
Someone on the spring-time path
Crushed a daffodil.
Breath is bleeding everywhere,
Men carefully step clear.
Locked inside their private selves
Of apathy and fear.
He who’s free is he who’s bound
By some inner singing thing,
He who’s sentenced by his soul
To life, and love, and spring….”

“I have decided to ‘curve’ all fascia board surfaces with a view to ‘wrapping’ all eave and rake edges [hoping to achieve more of a ‘cottage look’].”

when you accomplish the cottage look.

For an ‘old’ remodeler, your project sounds interesting. Work?? Heck yes, but interesting nonetheless.

Kmiddle, I thought you were a breath of fresh air in your comment last post - about what an incindiary business it was to fight emotionalism with emotionalism. That’s exactly what I was thinking, too, when I read the Toffler’s points. But I left it unsaid. Thanks for having the courage.

Donna - I appreciate that you’ve opened this post up as a sort of forum for us to express our questions about life and ourselves. I’ve felt some frustration at not finding an avenue (blog) which is not rigidly right or left. I’ve become more moderate as I’ve aged and I don’t like walls. I think the truth is often in the more complex middle. I can’t help questioning the status quo on both sides. I think that’s where wisdom ultimately comes from.

As for my questions about myself? I’ve always been extremely meek. I’ve had strong opinions, but have always hesitated to express them, because I dislike angry dialogue. Passionate is okay, but not when it ridicules, discounts or denigrates (or ignores) the other. So, I’ve questioned myself over the last few years - can I learn to speak up and speak my mind? What if I don’t agree with “the group?” Do I just shut up and think my own thoughts, or do I buck the trend? Thanks to maha’s neighborhood, I’ve felt emboldened to do this on occasion, even when I’ve sensed that my opinions have not always been “in line” with others. And that is something I thank you all for.
To me, life is a journey. I’ve always felt guilty that, as a US citizen, I have it so easy compared to others in this world. Sometimes I’ve felt it with true agony, sometimes with a craven sense of superstion or embarrassment. But I’ve since learned that the poorest person in the poorest corner on this planet often knows how to live a full and joyous life. That gives me hope and I’ve turned away from that guilt to focus on the joy and beauty all around us. I think of maha’s Buddha and I think of the reverence the Native Americans have for the natural world. I pay attention to how the happy and loving people in this world know how to give to others. Life is short. I don’t want to grit my teeth behind a wall, with my eyes smoldering with resentment. I want to reach my hand out when I can, using the intellect that God/evolution gave me, to see if I can help in this understanding that is crucial to our species if we are to make it in this human story of ours. If it gets bitten off, well, at least I’ll have tried. I feel secure enough now to chance it. Most people are good, no matter what religion they have or what side of the political wall they happen to inhabit. If someone has a questioning intellect, a gentle spirit, and an unwillingness to go with the herd, can one express oneself without feeling stupid, crushed or discouraged? That’s my question for myself.

Seems to me, Justme, [I avidly read all your comments on the Mahablog], by expressing yourself and speaking out as you do, you are right in the center of your purpose.

I am a couple hundred miles from Iowa, so I guess that’s too far to send a donated man. But thanks for your thoughts.

Swami, I love your questions…… these are really tough questions you ask yourself! Just wondering, have you given yourself the answers?

So sorry! Friday brain!

I have a roofing question: wtf is a “soffit”?

On topic: I try to ask myself, “How would I feel if my young nephew and niece knew about this thing I’m about to do/say?” I suppose this is a real-world variation on the time-tested “What if my dead grandmother could see me?”