Altered Perceptions? Also, Architecture is a Metaphor. But Actually, I think this is a Post about Journals. Maybe. Or maybe I just want you to think. Enlighten me.

I really don't know what happened...

I'm always so stuffy in my blogposts. In my attempts to sound scholarly or academic or professional or whatever it is I try to sound like in my blogposts, I sometimes lose myself. No, I almost always lose myself. I could even say I always lose myself. This is a tragedy.

So what does this have to do with written knowledge, architecture, or anything worth noting? Well, as I was contemplating how to write this blogpost, I got thinking about all the different voices we use in writing. There's our personal voice, our formal voice, our persuasive voice, our objective voice -- so many voices! Then comes the editing. Think of how much we edit our thoughts as we create the final product (Even as I attempt to type this I'm editing like crazy, and I was trying so hard to just speak my mind!).


As we have studied different civilizations in class, and talked about their written languages, it fascinates me what different civilizations chose to write down. Why would Sumerians choose to focus so greatly on numbers? Why would Islam choose to focus so much on religion? Of course we could say, "Well because that's what's important to them!" Yes, that's true. Everyone writes down what they consider "important." My question: is that what was important to everyone in that civilization? Or was that important to their leaders? Was it even important to their leaders? Who is this great, ambiguous force that decides what one civilization deems important?

So often our perception on history is shaped by what scholars have decided is "important." But what about the unimportant stuff? What about all the boring daily occurances that shape people? PEOPLE. Not great civilizations. People. Not great leaders. People. I want to know about Joe Sch'moe and his dog Roe. What was he like? What was his life like?

I know that so much more ancient written knowledge is out there that we haven't studied. I'm sure that Joe did write something about his life. Maybe we can't find it. Maybe it was destroyed. Maybe it slowly wore away with time. Maybe it's still out there.

My thoughts are so scattered. I'm trying to bring this together. I'm trying to make sense. I'm making no sense. Let me connect this with a list of sorts.

1. People are people. I'm convinced that regardless of time, age, or civilization, people have always been people. Personality-wise, I don't think we've changed much. Therefore, what we find important hasn't changed much. Therefore, what we would write about hasn't changed much. (Therefore, I'm annoyed at the fact that I'm saying therefore. Who talks like that?)
2. We have ancient writings from different civilizations. The ancient writings we have seem to emphasize different aspects of life depending on the civilization.
3. Editing exists. Because we're people (and we've always been people) we like to edit things. We want to create a perfect picture. We want to make things seems "just so." I like to think that our mind sees the world as a collection of little boxes and we want everything to fit in the boxes all neat and tidy. Things really aren't this way, though.
4. When some unique concept crops up often in the writing of the people of a civilization, our little editor brains want to focus on that. We want to throw out the rest of what we could derive from that writing and focus on that one thing. Ergo, Sumeria= business, Islam= religion.
5. If people are people though, then they couldn't have focused on just that one thing. As a person (maybe I'm just a weird person) I write about all sorts of things. Different things become important to me at different times. So, if people are people then those things we so often read about different regions can't be the only thing the people in that region wrote about.
6. I want to read what else they wrote about.
7. I want to read about people. Individual people.

They say that knowledge is power. And power is dangerous. Power makes you rebel. I think the more I learn about institutions of knowledge, the more inclined I feel to rebel. Is it wrong? Is this why I'm breaking away from my usual blogging voice? Is this why this post has taken such a bizzare turn?

I was suppose to be blogging about symbolism in architecture.

Instead, I'm going to share this link: http://myislamicfamily.com/

In this weird world of the internet, blogs appear to be the closest thing to a journal I can immediately find.  I was trying to look for some sort of Islamic journal entry and I found Abdullah's blog.  I didn't want to post his words here because they're his words and it just didn't feel right. But if you read it, you'll realize there's nothing out of the ordinary there. It's just his thoughts. His daily musings. The menial facts of his every day life. In short, I could say there's nothing special about it. But there is something special about it. This is a real man talking about his life. There's so much value in that! I'm learning about him. Not a great civilization. Him.

People are so valuable! Is it better to study a large group of them quickly or just one person slowly? Do we learn more about how people work by looking at them from afar or getting to know them up close?

I guess this is the part where I call you to action. So, here goes: document your life. It will be so valuable to someone. And meet new people. They are so valuable. And as important as the ancients are, the real, living people who surround you need your attention most. They need you. Don't forget they're there.

Maybe I'll talk about architecture later.