Bodhichitta

Bodhichitta

Crazy weather here today, rain, wind,  thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Add to that all the solar storms and well, “It was a VERY Dark and Stormy Night” and it still looks like night outside well after noon.

I had a bunch of code reviews to do and I got through them fairly quickly. Building Codes are a necessary evil. Evil because they meet the barest of standards, necessary; you know why they’re necessary. Anyway, as I was going through the various Zoning, Building and Fire Code Chapters, Sub-Chapters, References and ASTM Testing criteria I felt myself getting kind of knotted up. “Hum”, I thought, “preparing for battle”, it was a familiar feeling. I had a colleague who I would meet for lunch sometimes when we both had to go to the Building Department. He would always say “Let’s go to War!” when he picked up his rolls of plans and headed out the door. By golly, he always got one too.

I continued some additional readings and came across the word Bodhichitta . It stuck with me all morning and I returned to the original post about an hour later to learn more. Good word. I sometimes find myself conflicted between the parts of me that are Buddhist and those that are Samurai, ( I am neither yet I am both) meaning sometimes when people (mostly) annoy me I don’t know whether I want to hug them or de-capitate them, it’s a quandary. Anyway, I sure like this word, Bodhichitta in letter and spirit..

There is a common misconception that the Design business is glamorous. It’s true that the process of seeing something beautiful arise from dirt is indeed fascinating and to then inhabit a beautifully designed space can indeed be glamorous among other things.  The process though is one of budgets, contracts, manpower, materials, weather and logistics. All of these are interrelated and need to conform to codes and the “interpretation” of said codes by various “officials”. There use to be a saying that those who can’t do teach, and those who can’t do and also can’t teach become inspectors. Not so much the case these days. I enjoyed the cynicism though for decades.

A recent project I just completed had NO inspectors because that part of the country just did not care. I hired a 3^rd Eye to do all the reviews and be sure I had caught everything.  We wrestled about a few minor things but for the most part it was a smooth and beneficial relationship and saved the Owner’s a ton on insurances and sleepless nights. In the old days I would have pounded and screamed and pointed to the “right-ness” of my interpretations of the various code sections he referred to and felt so strongly about; this time I just said OK, and had the guys do it “his way”.

Once when I was doing a job in NYC, I arrived early to meet an Electrical Inspector and was sitting on the stoop reading the Voice. A few folks from the building and on the street stopped and chatted. The sun was out and the day and people were pleasant.  One guy hung out a bit more and we talked about politics, race relations and sports. Soon the guy looked at his watch and said “I better head up” , “Oh, I said, “you live here?”….”No, he said, I’m meeting some jerk Designer from out of town for an inspection” as he put his credentials in place. “Humm, What’s your name?”, I said and stuck out my hand. “Ed” he said, “You?”………………”Jerk”…………and grinned as we shook. Inspections went fine for the entire project.

As I sat outside Yoga watching the doves, waiting for class yesterday, one of the instructors came over and stood next to me. He said, “Wow David, you have such a calm / mellow energy about you”........."Thanks, Yoga”, I said, as the doves cooed in the back ground, “Yoga.”