[Greenbuilding] reaching conclusions

[David Seth Melchert]

> I like your comments and it inspired me to add a few.
>
> Building 'green' has always been an oxymoron. Anyone involved in the
> 'profession' has probably felt the contradiction strongly. ...
> ....
> On Behalf Of Philip Proefrock
...
> I don't think green building is ever going to be a single set of absolute answers.  ... It's the balance of
> choices you make, and that is inherently fuzzy and imprecise.
>
>   
This sort of debate was once a favorite of mine. Older listers might 
recall some of my more heady philosophical tomes. I'm generally too busy 
running my business these days to jump in...

...but since John and others have written so eloquently I might add, 
oxymoron's and contradictions are food for wisdom and transcendence. All 
of the critical information passed on this list still needs to be given 
a home in the ancient human practice of reconciling the irreconcilable. 
John you are right about green building not finding safe harbor in 
either commerce or religion. Precision is a tool for the mind and is 
critical for a certain realm (including this list!). But wisdom involves 
other tools. Symbols such as Athena armed with a spear or Kali swinging 
her sword, warriors ready to chose decisively but not from a logical 
standpoint might be just as effective.

I really think that *effective* "green building" will require much more 
than improving on our wasteful system: it will demand that we transcend 
our limited views of the material world, our disconnected and fragmented 
sense of individuality, and reclaiming a deeper sense of our humanity.

OK, please do not banish me to an elist on archaic spirituality. I just 
returned from a weekend family reunion in central Wisconsin where big 
cars and trucks and wasteful bland houses are the rule, and talk of 
green building is almost another language. I am in culture shock, 
returning to home, the Bay Area.

Seth Melchert
Oakland CA