The Flava of Time

Frank Lloyd Wright was 70 years old when his doctor told him that a move west would help his recurrent pneumonia.  Damned quacks.  But he took the opportunity to design and build a masterpiece in the desert.

I had my second opportunity to visit Taliesin West on the edge of Scottsdale, dragging Greg "The Dawg" along for the one hour tour.  After about five minutes of looking around, he was a convert.

The Asian influence is omnipresent, from the Chinese pottery mounted here and there to the
rooftop structures and the "setting stone" element of a Japanese rock garden.

The school Wright established still trains architects, and the site is more of a "working commune" than a museum.  Most people know Wright for his design of the Guggenheim--begun when he was 76--or this little cottage in the Pennsylvania woods:

Fallingwater has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture."  Wright was just a kid at 67 when he designed this. He's been criticized for some structural issues that arose later--but then it was pointed out that the site was never meant to have thousands of visitors per year tramping through it.  It was built as a country retreat for a family of three.

The point, other than to learn a little about FLW and see some cool buildings? Time. My own little retreat to AZ with the dawg had me thinking about time, and what I want to do with mine. Time's at the base of all our resources, all we ever hope to do and be.  We may have invented clock and calendar, but we are subject to the whim of telomeres and apoptosis, not to mention cardiac issues, malignancy, and of course the odd wayward bus with our name on it. There is a ticking beneath the din of our greatest aspirations. Wright didn't let age slow down his dreams, his passion.

So you and me, see, we get to choose what we do with our ticks, at least the ones not spoken for already.  I will end now in that spirit! Keep the faith, and remember that real courage may be simply laughing at the tyranny of clocks.