We're Surrounded

As Paolo's 90th birthday approaches, it is time to celebrate for those who participated in "the most important urban experiment in our lifetime" (particularly for me, who gave birth to that phrase that became the tagline for us since the Newsweek interview of 1976, though you will not find that in the authorized history)

Personally, it is a time to give myself empathy for the love I never found at Arcosanti, if only to recognize that Paolo's ability to choose the right partner was as decisive for him as any other manifestation of his genius. The recent Wright Guggenhiem show should be enough vindication for any of us. If America's greatest architectural visionary was "in love with the automobile", props to all of you who were able to see it's insanity, with special honors to my teacher, who early on repudiated his own teacher's dearest belief, on both aesthetic and evolutionary grounds. Amazingly, the nation has still no clue, in part due to our approach to challenging car culture. We are not alone. Every anti-car screed fails to give empathy to the needs satisfied by the car, Wright being the eloquent articulator of the mystique.

As we turn our hearts toward the pixie agent provacatuer who seduced us out into the basin and range province of North America in our youth, the first order of business, using the model of Compassionate Communication, is to recognize the unmet needs of workshoppers and staff throughout the years, that cry to be heard from every page of websites given to their expression, as they did from every conversation in my stay onsite and since.