If you read my That Teacher post, you'll see where I reference Dr. Timothy Powell, my most favorite educator of all time. One of the classes that I took with Dr. Powell focused on Native American literature, and he talked about how he was doing a project using architecture in the District of Columbia instead of books, magazines or other forms of the written word as his texts. The concept was interesting. When we're researching or observing things around us, why not consider stationary things that have been standing longer than the people who walk on by?
This brings me to today's lesson. I got an email today from my cousin that I'm sure was meant to assert that Christianity is built into the nation's most historical buildings. An excerpt from that email:
As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the Two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door. As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!
Who would have thought that such things were engraved into these buildings? But in all honesty, I don't think that the purpose of architectural designs is to try to inject political messages or ideals into our communities. Rather, they're meant to provide an aesthetic quality to a practical structure. I, of course, admire Dr. Timothy Powell's efforts in interpreting the DC structures, and I have no doubt that his end project was extraordinary. But at the same time, I think that there are times when you should just appreciate the beauty that something - whether it's a building or anything else - has to offer rather than reading extra messages into them.
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