101 Second, San Francisco

I want to write about place. I want to write about how my environments affect me. I want to voice my opinion about buildings and cityscapes. And I’m terrified that my thoughts will go into a black hole and no one will pay attention. That what I care about and what I think about what I care about won’t matter.

I have not submitted my ideas to anyone because I felt unqualified. Untrained, Uneducated. Unfamiliar. With the world of the built environment. I knew what I liked and what I didn’t. I thought perhaps I was out of synch with my times.

The de Young museum

My experience with the new de Young museum has been revelatory, freeing; — it’s been a watershed for me in terms of my appreciation of new buildings.

I really dislike a lot of modern architecture. For a long time I thought I hated all modern architecture; that I was a perfect San Franciscan, focused on the past and unwilling to experiment.

About place

I’m going to start posting my articles about place. Place informs me. It informs my writing and it is often what I like about a book or an author’s work. Can I imagine being in that place? Can I smell the flowers or the dirt in the street. Can I feel the cobblestones under my feet? or the heat of the sun in a sere land?

I’m often walking and looking at the spaces between buildings. Or taking a moment to assess how a space affects me. I ride trolleys and busses and underground trains. I love them! I love how they sound. I love the old cars and the new ones. I love the sense of sharing.

Taking baby steps

Another of my letters for the BAIPA News (June 2008)

In my email yesterday, I got the Writers Digest newsletter and the subject line read “Push Past Writer’s Block” – it made me think about how we begin to move, how we begin after a fallow time, how we are able to act when it all seems so hard.

Taking these steps, these positive steps – I call them baby steps — is important. And it’s equally important to acknowledge taking these steps, whatever they are, to move you onward.