IF GIVEN THE CHANCE would we do it all over again?
Our ridgetop homes, our beach houses and cabins in the woods, our country houses and Hawaiian estates, our panoramic views and private parks-- our front yards and back yards-- our swimming pools and hot tubs, our outdoor kitchens and barbecue grills, our tropical gardens and evergreen lawns, our drip irrigation systems and automatic sprinklers, our very own tennis courts and basketball hoops and driving ranges and bowling alleys. Alright.
CALIFORNIA ON FIRE is the consequence of us—but what about us? (Dixie, McFarland and Caldor fires, California 2021)
RAGING FIRES are a sign of an environment out of balance, but what has caused this disequilibrium? (Dixie and Caldor fires, California 2021)
WHO’S THREATENING WHO in this story? (Thomas and Mendocino Complex fires, California, 2017)
Our entry halls and powder rooms, grand stairs, and great rooms. Our family rooms and rec rooms and media rooms and TVs in every room. Our billiards rooms, personal gyms, dens, home offices, and home theaters. Our meditation rooms, sewing rooms, and craft rooms. Our wine cellars, utility rooms and mud rooms, walk-in pantries and walk-in closets, our his and her bathrooms, giant master bedrooms and sitting rooms and vanities and side-by-side king-size beds. Terrific.
NO ONE SHOULD LOSE THEIR HOME but could or should we think differently about what we call home? (Camp Fire, Paradise, CA, 2018)
TWO AND TWO TOGETHER would suggest that what has happened here is not unrelated to what was built here. (Paradise, CA and Santa Rosa, CA, 2018)
Our side-by-side refrigerators and wine coolers and dishwashers, our double ovens and convection ovens and warming ovens and toaster ovens. Our appliance garages and trash compactors. Our occupancy sensors and Siris and sound systems and surveillance systems and security systems. Awesome.
OUR MOTORIZED relationship with our environment is neither necessary nor helpful in our enjoyment of it.
ARE OUR RECREATIONAL NEEDS so all-consuming that we need to so drastically alter our environment to accommodate them?
Our catalogues by mail and our internet deliveries, our food deliveries and food processors and standing mixers, our cookie molds and melon scoops, our waffle irons and water filters, our electric corkscrews and nose hair trimmers, our stationary bikes and computerized treadmills, rubberized weights and yoga mats. Wonderful.
ALWAYS SEEKING for elsewhere when where we are is all we need
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SCRAPING AND THE PAVING OVER of our one and only truly unrenewable resource astounds.
Our Kansas City steaks, Norwegian salmon, Swiss chocolate and hand-made pasta flown in from Modena. Our truffles from Piedmont and our saffron from Castille. Our double bacon cheeseburgers and giant chicken nuggets. Our Burger Kings and Jack-in-the-Boxes, Taco Bells and Wendy’s and Panda Expresses. Our Spago’s and French Laundry’s, our Eatalys and DeLuca’s. Our South Coast Plazas and Beverly Centers. Our Harrods and our Bergdofs, our Saks and Niemans. Yep.
THE QUEST FOR STUFF at the scale and volume at which we do it cannot last.
IT IS THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER no matter the source that will be our insurmountable challenge should we continue to live the way we do.
Our Vuitton and Hermes and Chanel, our Cartier and Tiffany, our Givenchy, Burberry and McQueen, our Dolce and Gabbana, Prada and Gucci, Armani and Versace, this fall and next spring and the fall after that and the spring after that. Our dozens of shoes and dozens of suits and dozens of ties. Our evening wear and resort wear and ski wear. Our tennis outfits and golfing outfits. You bet.
THE INDUSTRIALIZATION OF EVERYTHING including plants and animals is a habit we can kick.
Our two (and three and four) car garages, our Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis and our Teslas, our Harleys and Ducatis, our motorboats and sailboats, our pick-ups and trailers and RVs, our country clubs and yacht clubs. Our golfing gear and fishing gear and hiking gear and tennis gear. Our golf tournaments and golf courses in perfect desert weather, our water skis and snow skis in perfect winter weather, our ski trips in the Alps and the Rockies, our treks in the Himalayas and our rockets in space. Ok, wow.
WHO SAID this was the American Dream or a basic human right?
WHAT IF instead the dream has become a nightmare?
WOULD WE DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN or would we build back differently?
Our baseball stadiums and our football stadiums, our outdoor arenas and indoor arenas. Our Disneylands and Six Flags, Universal Citys and Knotts Berry Farms. Our Olympics and our Wimbledons and our Superbowls. Our Coachellas and Burning Mans. Our Stones and Santana, our Weekend, Bad bunny and Rufus del Sol. So dope.
WERE WE TO BUILD BACK DIFFERENTLY what really would we lose?
WHAT MIGHT WE GAIN were we to rethink how we build?
COULD WE CLAIM a better relationship with our environment, improve our movement within it and our cultivation of it?
Our trips to Iceland and Thailand, Patagonia and Mongolia. Our holidays in Venice and Florence, Paris and Bordeaux, Barcelona and Madrid, Athens and Santorini. Our Caribbean cruises and our Mediterranean cruises. Our Ritz Carltons and Waldorf Astorias, our Four Seasons and Plaza Hotels. Our cooking classes and our yoga retreats and meditation retreats. Our agritourist sojourns in the Tuscan fields and our ecotourist trips to the jungles of Costa Rica. All good. No worries, no problem.
WOULD WE REFIND EQUILIBRIUM and put an end to the out-of-control California fires?