Henry Westerman
@hgwesterman
Henry Westerman
To be stubborn is to be like stone: strong and unyielding in the face of great pressure... until one day the strain grows too great, and the brittle rock begins to crack and break.
To be curious is to flow like water: flexible and Dynamic in the face of obstacles—continuously exploring the Ambiguity of possibility in order to find a new way forward.
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Thus, the Critical is the Dynamic: he who transcends the struggle to find canon, unshackling himself from the weight of dogma through a willingness to reflect upon new knowledge—to reconsider the validity of existing opinion, and to adapt his own attitude to weather and surmount the reality of inconstant and evolving conditions. Unbound by... See more
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During the two decades between the founding of Hull House and the 1909Plan of Chicago, the city doubled in population from one to two million,25 withthe majority of newcomers being low-income migrants from Europe and ruralAmerica. While both Jane Addams and Daniel Burnham shared a progressive-minded zeal to “improve” the city of Chicago, their... See more
JSTOR: Access Check
The essence of the debate around how to do urban planning, since its foundation
In an 8–1 decision recitedad nauseum by land use lawyers ever since, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. acknowl-edged that public regulation of private property without compensation is neces-sary and constitutional under certain circumstances: “The general rule at least is,that while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulation goes too... See more
JSTOR: Access Check
The essence of the debate around how to do urban planning, since its foundation
The trick goes like this: in most churches one is taught, quite explicitly, and from the youngest possible age, that God loves you and is watching out for you. Therefore, the lesson continues, you can feel loved and safe in the world. It’s a comforting lesson, and when felt deeply it is quite moving. Implicit in this lesson, however, is something like a threat. Namely, that if for some reason you don’t know that there is a God who loves you and protects you, then you will have no grounds for feeling loved and safe in the world
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What I realized in that moment is that my happiness in life did not come from, or rely upon, any religious idea. It was not dependent on any particular idea of God or any specific narrative about my place in the universe. My feelings of being fundamentally safe and loved in the world were gifts that had been given to me by my family; even if I interpreted them in a religious way, they were never inherently religious feelings. Today I am just as capable as ever of feeling like a good and a happy person, even though I lack any absolute standard for “good” or any plausible ultimate source from whom that happiness flows. My religion had always taught me to credit its god for those feelings, but I realize now that they exist whether I believe in Him or not.
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Though it may seem impossible, there is still wonder on the other side of belief. Even without a God around whom to focus your wonder. There is still gratitude, even without a God to whom you can direct it. There is still love and kindness, and the world can still be deeply moving. It is still possible to be happy and to feel like a good person, even without an ultimate arbiter to give your life meaning or to tell you what “good” means.
To those of you who have never constructed your lives around religion, these statements may sound obvious to the point of being asinine. But to me they were among the most valuable and difficult ideas that I ever learned.