yellow chair

I've been thinking a lot about the uses and meanings of space lately. (go and read -- its very good -- a bit of a kindred spirit)

the debate tournament happened in a place called the Philomathesian Lecture Hall at Kenyon College. It felt like a pub, and britain and dead poets society and like the place where all the honorable white guys have been gathering for all these centuries to think collectively about how they're going to shape things.

so no wonder -- since they've been shaping things for so long -- no wonder that i like the way that space feels.

sometimes i feel like i have more of an emotional connection with wood. but then i wonder if that's real or just conditioning. most of my office is old metal surfaces and concrete block, cement floor with an industrial weave rug over it and (worst of all) ceiling tile.

Do you already know how i feel about ceiling tile?

but sometimes this space can be a little bit sacred. mostly in moments when people are sitting in the yellow chair.

some of you know the yellow chair, others do not. Here's a photo:



Its been in my office ever since Grandma Erman's altzheimers forced her to give up her old house on the Erle Farm (century old log house, carefully covered and recovered in shiny white aluminium (please use british pronunciation on aluminium)). My father in law, Garry and my brother in law Brian looked at me as if I were a space alien when I suggested that I wanted the chair, and no, they shouldn't throw it out...but its lent itself to brilliant creative brainstorming, honest confrontation, broken expressions of pain, and mostly -- laughter and mundane conversation.

I think that the yellow chair, when read as an icon, indicates that i live a fortunate life. Sacred space in the profane world of concrete, steel and drop ceilings.

hope you find a yellow chair -- an airport where God can land in your day --

peace ~

(btw ~ if someone you know asks for prayer requests maybe you could mention the yellow chair. She's fallen on hard times, and I'm not sure if her springs are worth salvaging...any suggestions?)