>>9597834 (PB)

According to R. Buckminster Fuller, a house is a machine. As a machine, when one part fails, it can be replaced with a new, better, part. Wiring. Plumbing. Heating. Cooling. Roof. Walls. Doors. Windows … all can be repaired or replaced.

Even the foundation.

I once saw a Kingdom Hall rebuilt, salvaging only a 10' section of the basement (to meet the legal requirement of it being merely a remodeling). We couldn't get a building permit to build new, but we COULD get one to "remodel". Following the demolition of the old hall and the curing of the new foundation, the building inspectors were hired to stay on site … KH construction goes THAT fast. Construction began on Sunday after breakfast (for 500) and brief prayer services in the dining hall tents (I drove the stakes through the asphalt of the old parking lot with a 10# sledge, worked guard duty over the building supplies in the night and, with one other Brother, made the scrambled eggs for 350-500 Brothers and Sisters each morning). The following Sunday, the meetings were held in the new KH, which still stank of carpet adhesive, wallpaper and fresh paint. It got it's certificate of occupancy Thursday before the bathroom tile was even dry (Sisters did the tile work, most of the wallpapering and even helped with the electrical, brickwork and roofing, trained and supervised by licensed contractor Brothers. Yeah … it was a sight to behold Sisters laying bricks next to Brothers and putting shingles up on the two story roof!).

By Tuesday, it had a brand new 200 car asphalt parking lot. All that remained was the laying of sod at the edges of the parking lot – everything else was DONE.

You don't trash the house because a bulb burned out. People seem willing to demolish the US because it is less than perfect without acknowledging that there is nothing better to replace it.

As long as two people disagree, there will be charges of racism, sexism, ageism and so on.

But that happens everywhere and in every time. It only ends when we get down to the final human.

And then, the great loneliness begins.