Did You Know That Awe & Wonder Are Emotions?

Did you know that “awe” and “wonder” are human emotions?

Yes… emotions that can transform your life. Collectively, we, as a species, are experiencing what I believe is a dangerous and severe lack of these emotions, which are critical to a profound experience as a human “be-ing” on this stunning planet. I read this book by Dacher Keltner (a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkley) “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life”. Please read it if this matters to you.

To dive deeper on this topic you can listen or read this interview with Professor Keltner talk about the emotion of awe.

Be Regular and Orderly... Be Violent...

I love this quote by Gustav Flaubert (a 19th century French novelist [and I know nothing more about him than that])… “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Antelope Canyon I An Immersive Stone Experience Idea

Red sandstone is my favorite type of stone that I’ve ever touched, seen and explored. It’s very powerful.

One of my major life goals is to create an Immersive Stone Experience Space where people can come and BE in for hours and have their living experience be affected in a dramatic way by beauty + wonder + awe.

One of the immersive experiences is to replicate a small version of Antelope Canyon with a team of stone builders and sculptor using sandstone from Utah or Arizona.

I describe this as “my soul’s duty to express the godhead in a physical form with stone”.

It’s not about hubris or ego or vanity. It’s about what I am doing with my life on this beautiful planet.

Photo 1 - A screenshot from the Instagram account of comedian @andrewschulz and his wife standing in awe in the canyon. In his caption he writes, “All art pales in comparison to that of God, sand, water & time…”

Photo 2 - A photo from yourhikeguide.com

MY VERY FIRST STONE PROJECT... LITTLE DID I KNOW.

MY VERY FIRST STONE PROJECT

2003 / Durango, Colorado - This photo is of me holding my first born son Aidan at a rental house.

I collected a bunch of rock from the side of the La Plata mountains and built a “drystone” patio and a sod play area for us to hang outside more.

At this point in my life I didn’t know what I was doing for work, just whatever came along. I was pretty aimless because I had wanted a career in the military but it didn’t work out and I left my second military tour in 1998 very distraught.

That year (2003) we moved to Boulder so I could complete my Bachelors degree at UC-Boulder. I wanted to go on to a Masters degree in Middle Eastern studies and Arabic and work in the diplomatic or intelligence field.

I had ZERO plans to get into the landscaping field and then stonework. Wasn’t even a blip on the radar.

Little did I know at the age of 33 about how life would unfold for me 6 years later when I discovered the drystone method at the age of 39.

ORDER, CERTAINTY, BEAUTY & STANDARDS: They Matter. More Than Ever!

All around me I see chaos, uncertainty, ugliness and the disappearance of standards. I’m constantly re-committing myself to be a man who builds ORDER, creates CERTAINTY, designs BEAUTY and maintains STANDARDS, no matter what. Period. No excuses.

So I love this quote I heard from DJ Shipley, a former member of Seal Team 6, on a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan. They were discussing the level of capacity that Tier 1 military units maintain and he said this: “A standard becomes a standard until someone exceeds it. When the collective exceeds it, it becomes a dynasty.”

It’s my new motto as I figure out what’s next for me as a stonebuilder rebuilding my business in Texas and attempting to launch The Modern Stone Guild.

"THE WAR OF ART"

I’m re-reading Steven Pressfield’s book “The War of Art” again for the about the 10th time. Y

Yesterday and today I’ve been thinking a lot about what he writes regarding “why” an Artist does his work and about what should be the utter essence of why I create.

It was a breakthrough. I cried a bit because I had to let go of some shit around this matter. Two points Pressfield wrote shook me up and I’m grateful to him for them: First, “What do I feel growing inside me? Let me bring that forth, if I can, for its own sake and not for what it can do for me or how it can advance my standing”. Second, “We must do our work for its own sake, not fortune or attention or applause. Then there’s the third way proffered by the Lord of Discipline (my notes: He’s referring to an instruction spoken by Lord Krishna to Prince Arjuna), which is beyond both hierarchy and territory. That is to do the work and give it to Him. Do it as an offering to God.

Give the act to me. / Purged of hope and ego, / Fix your attention on the soul? Act and do for me.

WHAT IS CREATIVITY? REALLY, WHAT IS IT?

“A great artist is but a conduit for an expression that resonates with something that is greater than him or herself.” (From Jason Silva’s ‘Shots of Awe’)

This brief blog is dedicated to all of you Creatives I know and don't know out there. You'll get this video!

I've been watching Jason Silva's "Shots of Awe" videos periodically since around 2013. When I begin to lose that inner "reason" about why I do what I do and how I want to feel about what I do, I watch a handful of his videos specifically on Awe, Beauty, Connection and Creativity. I'll watch 1 about 3-5 times until I feel "true" inside once again and not on some path of compromise. Compromise to me means 1) Working with people who don't align with me or the potential of a project or 2) Looking at a project only for the money I could make or 3) Reducing the potential beauty or grandeur of a project for unnecessary reasons.

Thanks Jason for putting yourself out there for so many years.

His website = www.thisisjasonsilva.com
His YouTube = "Jason Silva: Shots of Awe"

A FALLACY WITHIN THE DRYSTONE WORLD

I've identified a new FALLACY in the DRY STONE world.

It's the FALLACY that a dry stone mason who uses too much technology un-becomes a dry stone mason.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines "fallacy" as "a false or mistaken idea". In this post, I want to obliterate this fallacy in order to spark some thinking about 3 objectives:

1) To open up what's possible with dry stone building in the 21st century using all forms of available technology such as a my Modern Stonecraft method.
2) To re-direct this misplaced, ego-driven attention on how dry stone masons build a project towards increasing our craft's overall visibility amidst the deluge of concrete products pouring down on potential customers.
3) By accomplishing the first two objectives we might be able to resurrect natural stone back to its rightful place as the world's premiere building material.

There's a spectrum of technology available and some amongst us seem to think that if a dry stone mason ventures too far from using only a hammer and chisel then he or she is no longer a dry stone mason.

At our 2016-2018 Truckee project, every piece of stone (ranging from 250 lbs to 3,500 lbs) was set with a handheld or machine-mounted vacuum lifter or friction grabber. We used all kinds of grinders, saws, chisels and hammers. The project was built using a simple innovation I created that I call Modern Stonecraft, which combines the ancient drystone building method, machine-based stereotomy and lifting technology to meet the demands of modern design

Most thought the project was unique, beautiful and extremely well-crafted, but a handful of comments were posted from traditional dry stone wallers in Canada, the East Coast and the United Kingdom deriding my crew as "assemblers" (not masons) and lambasting our using of grinders and saws. So be it.

Meanwhile, I work to keep my focus on what's possible, increasing our craft's visibility to architects, builders and homeowners and educating others about why natural stone is the world's best building material especially for outdoor features.

The Pro Human Principles for 2021

In the late Spring of 2020, my wife and I created these 12 pro human principles. Just click directly on the image to read through all twelve. Enjoy!

I'm Doubling Down. Starting Now.

Here’s what I am personally doubling down on in my own life during all of this chaos and insanity starting now. (Some of these ideas I actually started practicing many months ago. I’m nowhere near perfect, but I really try hard.)

• Be genuinely kind even when I don’t want to be which can be often these days.

• Be civil especially when driving a multi-ton vehicle.

• Hug anyone willing to accept a hug. Some humans don’t want to now.

• Shake hands like a man. No elbow bumps.

• Choose not to wear a mask-talisman and instead smile and make eye contact.

• More analog (or offline) stuff, activities and less of the digital stuff. I’m thinking about buying a record player and vinyl records.

• More retro and less high tech. We’ve been playing Blackjack after dinner with real money.

• More physical connection and zero physical distancing. I just refuse this one.

• Resist the nonsense. Resist the insanity. Resist the onslaught against what makes us really good humans.

Stone Lookout & Drinking Tea With Bedouins in Southern Israel

“Stone Lookout” & Drinking Tea With Bedouins (Southern, Israel 1993)

In 2019, I built this simple “stone lookout" out back of our rental home in Tucson, Arizona.  I worked on this very slowly for about 5 months. I collected nearly 200 rocks down in the desert wash, carried them up the small hill and made piles. On weekends, I worked them as little as possible and set 1 to 5 stones at a time. There are about 150 stones set in this rough-built feature. “Stone Lookout" is more about function than form for me.

Why the function? Recently, we watched the Israeli series “Fauda” and in one scene the main character, Doron, is sitting and drinking coffee from a small glass and it reminded me of a vivid memory I have of squatting around a fire and drinking tea in a Bedouin camp in Southern Israel when I was 24 years-old. After I left the Marines, I was accepted in a one-year program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  I've always been a curious person about humans and different cultures and my goal that year was to explore as much of the land as possible.

in late 1993, I planned a day trip to the Jabaliyah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. I found a Bedouin taxi driver in Jerusalem who agreed to drive me there. On the way there he asked me if it was okay if we stopped to see his family and have tea. 

Upon arrival, I greeted his wife who was squatting by a fire cooking something. A few others walked over and everyone just dropped down into the squat position. Soon a hot, brown tea was poured into small glasses with a bit of sugar. I remember feeling how incredible it was to experience what was for them a normal, ritualistic part of their daily life:  Taking a break, squatting and drinking hot tea from small glasses.

So, I decided that “Stone Lookout” would be a space to squat and drink hot tea or coffee as often as possible for me and my wife.

I Resist Through Creation

I Resist Through Creation

One way I RESIST the fear, fakery, propaganda, insanity and power grabs is by creating. I finished this feature at our rental home In July by planting Dichondra(a small genus of flowering plants in the ‘morning glory’ family ~ Convolvulaceae) with my sons and grandson!

I’m designing a hanging tree light system next and co-designing bright colored geometric-shaped ‘beanbag’ furniture with my friend Josh (Wrought Canvas) in Durango, Colorado!

(This is a feature I call the “Om lounge”. I collected about 520 stones from a desert wash a couple of miles away, hauled them to my truck and set about 450 of them in the feature. I wanted to show what’s possible with free stone!)

MY THOUGHTS FOR DESIGNERS + ARCHITECTS + BUILDERS + STONEMASONS IN 2020.

Two of my DESIGN-BUILD PRINCIPLES that I've used over the last 16 years of creating outdoor experiences, spaces or features are:
1) Humans need beauty, awe, and wonder
2) Design drive human behavior

I believe that our species - homo sapiens - must have beauty, awe and wonder in order to have a full experience on Planet Earth. A "full experience" means to me to act and live in accordance with one's NATURAL human potential and expression. All else is unnatural.

If a human's life experience is lacking beauty, awe and wonder then what sits in the place and space of these three aspects?

What do I mean by "design drives behavior"?

It's really simple: Humans will unconsciously act or behave in accordance with how something is built. If you've designed your home with a television screen in every room then you will most likely turn on the TV and watch it all the time.

When i design and build an outdoor stone experience, space or feature I always think about how humans naturally will move around a feature, their average dimensions and how to create a place where they will connect to themselves, to others or to nature by virtue of how I design and build the actual feature. I want to create human connection, not distancing.

My conclusion is this: DESIGNERS, ARCHITECTS, BUILDERS and STONEMASONS! We are living in some very unusual, unnatural times where external forces are doing a great job of DISCONNECTING humans. Those of us that design and build could radically affect the human experience by designing and building in such a way as to create different behaviors that connect us to ourselves, to others and to nature!

BAGS of CEMENT, WOOD TEMPLATES, HEAT & the MASON'S TENDENCY

I copied this from my Instagram post so that you could easily click on the links to watch or read.

I want to add a layer to the mystery of how these pre-Incan features in Peru were built. I describe it as THE MASON'S TENDENCY. A mason's arms, hands, chisels and hammers are designed to work in certain ways. So a mason will TEND to work in those certain ways. We TEND towards shaping dimensional shapes NOT multi-dimensional sided, convex-faced pieces. (I'm not even a fan of the aesthetics of these pre-Incan ruins. Other than maybe the anti-seismic aspect I would never build this way IF I could.)

A MASON also generally TENDS towards efficiency (without compromising, I hope). So, TOOLING stone into these complex shapes is NOT efficient, BUT if the stone was heated, made malleable and you had different tools then a MASON might TEND towards creating the soft, multi-dimensional sided, convex-faced characteristics of these stones.

3 VERY DIFFERENT THEORIES...

Theory #1 - Bags of Cement 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv49DND3uPI

Pls read the comment posted by "Diamonddavej", a geologist.

Also, how or why would you make a bag that had 12 sides and why would each bag be shaped differently in such complex shapes in the first place?

Theory #2 - Wood Template

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/unravelling-mystery-behind-megalithic-stone-walls-saksaywaman-001470

This could be done, but it would be extremely time-consuming and nearly impossible with the very large stones unless you had advanced lifting technology. But, I don’t see the tool marks that support this.

Theory #3 - Heat + Vitrification

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-americas/unravelling-mystery-behind-megalithic-stone-walls-saksaywaman-001470

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqUtb1O4TkA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xBwGNLnpo

I'm a believer in the theory that the stone was heated which made it malleable and then these convex-faced and multi-sided aspects could be "shaped" with different tools. I also believe some sort of advanced lifting technology that bypassed the laws of gravity was used.

IS BEAUTY A HUMAN NEED? IS IT CRITICAL TO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE?

Yes and yes.

Since I was a teen, I have observed one thing about myself: I am attracted to beauty (a subset of aesthetics, perhaps). I noticed the beauty of a woman’s face with excellent symmetry. In the Marines, I experienced the beauty of a plume of water shot up from the engine of a rigid-hull boat as we tore through calm waters and the ceiling of fog hovered a mere twelve feet above us. As a student in Jerusalem, I walked most Saturdays to the Old City and just sat for hours inside and watched humans gather and pray in front of the massive blocks of limestone stacked up to form the Western Wall.

Over the last few years I’ve been thinking about beauty more and how much I crave it. I now believe beauty is both a human need and something critical to our experience as humans. Why? Beauty (along with awe and wonder) provides us with a glimpse into the transcendent, the divine or the higher order. It creates an opportunity for us to break away from the gross, the dense, the difficult, and the ugliness all around us created or built by other humans.

I recently found out about Roger Scruton, a British writer and philosopher who specialized in aesthetics and political philosophy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Scruton) and a documentary he produced titled “Why Beauty Matters” (https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/why-beauty-matters/). It’s not a high-quality production and nor is it entertaining, but it is a very, very important documentary to watch for anyone who designs and builds things in our world.

So much ugliness is built all around us. I’m Furious with the thoughtlessness of designers, planners and builders in America who mindlessly heed the “form follows function” maxim introduced into the architecture world by Louis Sullivan. What they’ve produced are strip malls, box-shaped office buildings, grid patterns of all kinds, cookie-cutter housing developments with no natural spaces, and more that completely lack beauty let alone wonder or awe. They are all mean acts and not kind acts perpetuated upon other humans who have no say about what’s built in public spaces that we are all then forced to interact with.

I encourage you to watch this very important documentary.

Meanwhile, I plan to continue on my quest to create more beauty in this world no matter what.

T+C = RP... A Guiding Principle I Wished I'd Learnt 15 Years Ago

T+C = RP

“It Takes Time and Context to Recognize Patterns”

The above is a quote from Pete Blaber’s book “The Mission, the Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander”.) I bought this book a couple of months ago and I’m reading it for a second time. Late last night I read this quote on page 145 and woke about 5am this morning with a realization about myself: Since I’ve been building things (landscape construction, dry stone features and roof decks) for 15 years I’ve often thought that I was naive or lacking discernment about other men’s character and behavior at the job site when they failed me, the client or the project itself. I really thought up until last week (when I had to shut down a roof deck project in Puerto Rico on the first day due to no fault of my own) - that I was lacking something or somehow faulty.

Blaber’ quote made me realize that, for the most part, there is no way for me to forecast or RECOGNIZE PATTERNS of individual human behavior at a project without TIME and CONTEXT. TIME is just that, time on the job site. CONTEXT, in my case, is the demands and pressures of maintaining a high building standard and the desired schedule of the project, no matter what.

So whether it was the charming owner of the high-end landscape firm I subcontracted in 2016 who was actually a bad dude who snorted coke and bounced his employees’ checks or the skinny, quiet apprentice I hired in 2015 who was actually super strong, very dependable and one of the best guys I’ve ever hired, I simply needed TIME on-site + CONTEXT of a tough project to RECOGNIZE their individual PATTERNS of behavior and character

It’s now 10am and I don’t feel like such a dummy anymore. Thanks Pete!

ll Capo” (The Chief): A Striking Look at Marble Quarrying In the Italian Alps

This is an extraordinarily beautiful and very original documentary that was sent to me a few years ago and I just re-watched again this past week. (I've been unable to find a way to watch the full length 15-minute documentary but here is the YouTube link of the 3-minute excerpt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du9_Kn2y2VA

"Il Capo" (The Chief): "Italian artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani captures the otherworldly landscape of Carrara's marble quarries in the Apuan Alps, Northwest Italy, as Il Capo (The Chief) guides his men through the extraction process in this excerpt (see the link in bio) by Yuri Ancarani." I watched this on "Nowness" (www.nowness.com) which is "a digital video channel launched in 2010 by Jefferson Hack.

Please enjoy!

Chaos Precedes Creation - Embrace the Process

Here are some thoughts I’ve wanted to post for a long time that all dry stone masons and all craftsmen and women experience.

First, some form of chaos always precedes creation.

Second, it is amazing to think about what it takes to be a creative person and bring a mere thought into a physical form and being-ness simply through physical movement and coordinated thoughts and tools.

Third, while I keep the chaos on my job sites organized because it’s how I think and plan best, it is still chaos in the beginning.  I love, love, love the process of sketching a design and being the lead doer who brings chaos into form with help from other talented humans!

Fourth, because creation requires physical action and a clear mind (via the brain organ) it’s critical that each of us treats and trains the body and brain with high regard and discipline.  I do a lot of intense outdoor physical training along with yoga and meditation and am very strict about the “fuel” I eat and drink. I’m not perfect at all, but my goal is to be able to do this work until the end!

My respects to all other craftspersons who do the struggle in the 21st century!

WHAT IS "MODERN STONECRAFT"?

MODERN STONECRAFT IS AN INNOVATION THAT COMBINES THE ANCIENT DRY STONE BUILDING METHOD AND LIFTING TECHNOLOGY TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF MODERN DESIGN.  (SEE VIDEOS BELOW.)

SO MUCH OF MODERN DESIGN IS ABOUT DIMENSIONAL AND RECTILINEAR SHAPES WHETHER ON A 2D PLANE OR IN A 3D SPACE, THE FLAT OR THE VERTICAL AS WELL AS LARGE SCALE AND BIG SIZE.  HENCE, THE UNDERSTANDABLE PROPENSITY FOR ARCHITECTS, DESIGNERS AND BUILDERS TO USE CONCRETE.  

BUT WHAT IF YOU COULD HAVE ALL OF THESE MODERN DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS AND USE NATURAL STONE WITH LARGE SCALE, BIG SIZE AND SOMETHING ELSE EXTRAORDINARY LIKE SURFACE TEXTURE?

FOR MY LATEST PROJECT IN TRUCKEE, CALIFORNIA I WORKED WITH MY TEAM OF COLLABORATORS AND OUR STONE IMPORTER TO DEVELOP A NEW APPROACH THAT USED THE MAGIC OF THE DRY STONE METHOD ALONG WITH INSTALLATION TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS VACUUM LIFTERS AND FRICTION GRABBERS TO SET OVER 270 TONS OF STONE INTO PLACE.  

THE GOALS OF SCALE AND SIZE WERE ACHIEVED BY USING MONOLITHIC PIECES OF GRANITE RISERS AND LANDINGS AND BASALT WALL STONE THAT RANGED FROM 800 TO 3,000 POUNDS.  FURTHERMORE I HAD 3 TEXTURES (ADZE, FLAMED AND LYCHEE) APPLIED ROTATIONALLY TO EVERY EXPOSED SURFACE TO "AWAKEN THE STONE'S POTENTIAL".

FOR SOME STUNNING EFFECTS WE "KEYED" WALL CORNERS AND "EXTRUDED" RISERS FROM WALL FACES.  FOR A FINAL DETAIL WE HID A NUMBER OF THE LIGHT FIXTURES INSIDE HOLES WE DRILLED INTO THE WALL.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS:  http://heritageearthandstone.com/modern-stonecraft/

A Path to Ikigai: A Conversation With A Stonesmith Master About Young People, Their Future, and The Trades

I WAS RECENTLY A GUEST ON MIXED MENTAL ARTS' PODCAST WITH BRYAN CALLEN AND HUNTER MAATS. OVER THE COURSE OF AN HOUR, I SHARED MY THOUGHTS ON THE "IKIGAI" WAY, HOW IT TRANSFORMED MY CAREER, AND HOW IT CAN BE USED AS A RESOURCE FOR THOSE WANTING TO BREAK INTO THE TRADES.  

LISTEN here FOR MORE INSIGHTS AND WISDOM.