Are we not Gods? Every monotheistic religion believes we’re made in the image of God, that God created the universe. We can only conclude from these testaments that God has become us, and that, through our individuality and soul experience, God expresses and experiences God’s Self anew.
Just as a good Rembrandt uses the chiaroscuro of light and shadow, so the universal design uses the chiaroscuro of good and evil, love and fear, to paint the contrasting lines of life with heroes and villains so that we may perceive on this grossly plane what is right from what is wrong. Though it is all God, there is, ultimately, the truth and the foundational essence: there is who we are versus how we pretend to be. Evil is us playing make believe; love and beauty is who we are.
Given this, I ask, “Why do we content ourselves with “Builder’s Grade,” when clearly, its only purpose to exist is to show us who we are NOT. It is the villain, the shadow, the fear that runs rancid in our hearts, falsely worrying us that we don’t deserve or can’t afford what is good, distorting our wisdom to think we need quantity over quality, and convincing us of the misery producing assumptions that, “No one will notice,” or that, “People don’t care.”
People do care. People do notice. Even if they can’t articulate why. Walt Disney said, “People can feel perfection.” Let’s be perfect, even as Christ is perfect, for “…he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than me shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
We cite this to say, it’s time to surrender the safety and sadness “Builder’s Grade” has afforded our selves in the capital west. It’s time to get it right the first time instead of demolishing the bad immediately upon building it wrong, effectively doubling or tripling the price and the waste under the guise that, “We couldn’t afford it [the first time].”
It’s time for God Grade, made by God, of God, for God. If what we make will do for the sophisticate and the rube alike, then it is right. Their experience will be the same. Both will say, “Wow. This is nice.” Sure, they might still say, “This is not for me. This is not my style,” and that is their choosing, the glory of our individuality. This is not an argument for uniformity. This is an argument for quality, for doing good.
Even the atheistic religions attest that this is our only life, that you only live once. We must then ask, “For your one life, must you really accept the popcorn ceiling, the hollow bedroom door, aluminum Venetian blinds, and the coil cooktop?!”
I was once on a first date in a home hardware depot, nevermind why. As we walked towards our quest, we passed kitchen appliances. There, amongst the good, they sold the ugly, the baked enamel white box fridges that our tenement selves know too well. I reasoned, “These fridges are so depressing. We would do well as a people to excommunicate them from our society.”
She looked at me concerningly and paternally, supposing she had something to teach me about life. “No. We need fridges like this. Not everyone has your privilege. This is the only fridge some can afford.”
“No,” I chided. “They sell beautiful glass bar fridges (what some would call a mini fridge) for half this price. Not to mention, commercial box freezers serve twice the volume and top load, doubling their efficiency since the cool air does not escape upon opening. Even better, when you adjust this freezer’s radiator to output fridge temperatures, the efficiency doubles again.”
She rebuked, “Commercial grade? How’s that not uglier than this?”
“Because the commercial unit is perfect in its function, which gives its own beauty. This fridge has neither good form or good function. It’s simply cheap. It’s sad, like a vacation to an amusement park: thrills and fortified flower. The nutritional requirements add up on paper, but in application, our bodies know it’s fake.”
I piqued my date’s interest, but there would be no lasting relationship. I was too weird.
So be it. Let’s be weird together and set a precedent that inspires us to live well instead of drowning our repressed sorrows committing slow suicide, distracting ourselves with cheap media, liquor, drug, and vice.
There’s always another way. Should we build always with God Grade materials, the environments where we live would be so inspiring that we would figuratively “jizz our pants” at life’s every turn, no Viagra or Vyleesi required.
This essay is focused on the home. Here’s the list of Builder Grade tropes we will firstly expose and henceforth dismiss for the alternatives that would do well to go in their place.
Builder Grade → God Grade
* Ducting → The central air will have split channels for air conditioning and heating. The AC vents will be in the ceiling, and the heating will be at ground level (either in the walls near the baseboard or in the floors).
* Flooring → There will be no carpet. The ground and basement levels will have heated floors.
* Doors → There will be no hollow doors; all doors will be solid.
* Cabinet Nobs → Cabinets would have handles.
* Blinds → Metal Venetian shades are out. In their place, use sheer, cellular, or Roman shades.
* Bathroom mirrors → All wall-mounted mirrors will have a frame; no unframed, clip-mounted mirrors.
This list will change. There are many more, but we will leave it at this for now and add as we set new intentions for our selves.
