David Rauschenbach

Simon Black recently recommended a book to his readers titled Emergency, by Neil Strauss. The recommendation was this:

“Neil tells an important story that we are all completely dependent on a functioning system of complex infrastructure.

We don't think about, for example, whether or not the lights will turn [on] when we flip the switch. We don't think about whether or not water will come out of the faucet, if the toilet will flush, if the grocery store down the road has food in stock, or if the gas station will be pumping fuel tomorrow. We take these things for granted... Emergency tells Neil's story about making this realization, ...”

I call this coming to one's senses, which happened to me at some point.

And as complex as the issue is, I think it can be reduced to a single question: “What is the ideal place to live?”. The relevance might not seem apparent on the surface, but bear with me.

The Swangkee Farm is a treasure trove of permanent construction prototypes. A common design primitive found on the farm is the Swangkee 2' x 2' solid concrete column. (Note: Swangkee means first class quality.)

The 9'-tall column shown here was built in 2008, at a material cost of less than $200! Now lets stop and think this over for a moment. Such columns, or narrower, are usually found holding up 6- to 8-story parking garages. How many thousands of years do you think that this column, if properly tiled, could hold up your earth-covered roof, which roof would never need repair work of any kind, other than your extended household just “doing the gardening” up there?

And, now that you've seen what a couple of hundred bucks can buy, do you still think your wooden/plastic firetrap house is worth its inflated bubble price of ¼, ½, or 1 million dollars, when everyone knows that, if left alone, it is no more than 30 years away from the trash heap — that is, if a tornado, fire, flood, or earthquake doesn't get to it first!?

This thought for the day comes from a famous and enlightening book titled “A Pattern Language: Towns • Buildings • Construction” (1977).