Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of De-Cluttering

Oak Park, Illinois, just west of Chicago, is known for many things. One that residents are most proud of is their trove of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. A number of houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are there and the Chicago Architecture Foundation (www.architecture.org) gives a tour of them. In addition, The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust (https://flwright.org/tours) has restored the home that he lived in with his first wife and six children. Guided tours of it are given to the public.

This week we took a tour and it was certainly worth the visit. I had to admire the design of the house. What I especially liked was its simplicity and lack of clutter. The large windows and skylights let in lots of light. The attention to every detail is amazing - from the design of the furniture and murals to the light fixtures and objects on the shelves. Frank Lloyd Wright was an admirer of Japanese art in particular and there are several Japanese sculptures and paintings throughout the house. The influence of Asian design can be seen throughout. Although Frank Lloyd Wright was a collector of objects of art, paintings, and all things unusual and interesting, he was able to design places to put all of them. There are built-in shelves, cabinets, and closets all fitting in beautifully with his overall design. What is left is a feeling of space and clean lines amid an attention to detail that is stunning and beautiful.   

Looking out through windows onto the street

skylight in the dining room

Murals adorning one of the rooms

Inspired by this vision, I left the Frank Lloyd Wright House determined to go home and clean out more closets and shelves. The visit provided me with an ideal for which to strive in my attempt to de-clutter. That house is the gold standard to which I now aspire. Ever since the 2016 election, I’ve been cleaning out closets, emptying drawers and shelves, and shredding any papers that I no longer need. At first, the impetus was to have less to pack in case we have to move. 

Since starting this project, however, I have found some other benefits. I can actually walk in my bedroom walk-in closet. Everything is neatly where I left it. I freed up loads of space in my file cabinets and have room now for all my latest projects. My bookshelves have room for new books and I’m no longer tripping over boxes in the bedroom. I think I like this.

Now it’s onward to the next set of shelves. Next time people come to visit, I hope that they can see some open spaces. It may remind them of Frank Lloyd Wright. 

Why I Participated in the Women's March 2018 in Chattanooga, Tennessee

My Chicago friends will ask me why I marched for women’s rights and social justice in Chattanooga. The short answer is that’s where we were when the 2018 Women’s March occurred. I wished that I was home in Chicago for this occasion, but I was glad that my husband and I marched in Chattanooga because it turned all the stereotypes I had of the South on their heads. We need to shake up our assumptions every so often to stay alive.

As we entered Coolidge Park, I told myself that I would be glad to march with the 100 to 200 people that would brave marching in this small (population about 175,000) Southern city. I told myself not to be afraid of the police or the bystanders who would be jeering at us.

We walked into the park where the warm- up rally was taking place. A singer revved us up covering Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T and then I turned around. People kept coming. They were old and young. They were predominantly white but there were some people of color, too. There were men and women. Everyone mingled comfortably.

Then we marched over the bridge into downtown and back over the bridge back to the park. The people kept coming – about 6,000 of them. I didn’t see any police. Nobody on the sidelines jeered. On the contrary, people in the crowds waved and many driving by honked signaling their support.

We talked to people who told us about Democratic women candidates who are running for office in areas where Democrats hadn’t run before. Some said they were in small minorities in their towns. The fact that all these people were there was testament that they were a much larger minority than I thought they were. Students told us they would definitely register to vote. A woman walked with her daughter and granddaughter in a stroller. She said, “I told her [her granddaughter] with tears in my eyes that by the time she went to school, we would have a different president.”

 I only hope that she is able to keep her promise because there was so much to march for.

 I marched to raise my voice to warn the current occupier of the White House that I won’t accept America becoming a Fascist state. I marched to demand respect for all Americans regardless of gender, ability level, skin color, origin, religious affiliation or lack thereof, or sexual orientation. Lastly, I marched to demand that we don’t give up. That we go to the polls in droves in November.

For the first time since November 8, 2016, I acted on these values with hope. When T. got elected, I thought that America was headed to Fascism and we would have to emigrate. For the first time, I’m hopeful that may not happen. If people who hadn’t marched before can march in Chattanooga and cities throughout America, maybe there is hope. Maybe America will regain its ideals. Maybe America can be America again. We all have to keep demanding it – Together.

President Trump and the Plight of Refugees

Once again, President Trump has disgusted us and made us feel ashamed to be Americans. This time, it was his racist remarks about people from predominantly non-white countries. Why can’t we have more people from countries like Norway [a very white country], he asked.

A counter-point to Trump’s racism is the book A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux. I read this gem after it was suggested by a group on Goodreads endeavoring to read books from every country in the world.

A Time of Miracles by Anne-Laure Bondoux is a young adult novel that has won literary prizes – the Prix Sorcieres in France and the Mildred L. Batchelder Honor Book in the United States. Anne-Laure Bondoux is without a doubt deserving of these honors.

My horizons were expanded by reading her book and learning of the existence of Abkhazia tucked away in the Caucasus Mountains, a part of the former Soviet Union. It’s a place to which I’m sure I’ll never travel. Reading a book to learn about its inhabitants is the next best thing after visiting there, meeting Abakhazians here, or watching an episode of it on House Hunters International.

A Time of Miracles starts in 1992 shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Blaise Fortune aka Koumail, a seven- year old boy, is with his protector Gloria. In the face of war, they have fled their home determined to get to France where they are sure they’ll have a good, peaceful life imbued with Liberte, Egalite, et Fraternite.

Blaise has been told the story of his early life by Gloria so often that it has become a litany. She took him from the arms of his dying mother after a train wreck. His mother was a French citizen and so is he and thus, he is entitled to live in France. Blaise believes this story – to a point - but something always feels like it’s missing.

Gloria and Blaise travel together from refugee camp to refugee camp. They get involved with smugglers who take them on legs of their journey on the backs of trucks. They walk endlessly on their own, through forests and deserts. They survive malnutrition and many times are on the verge of starvation. The reader learns little of Abkhasia but much about the plight of all refuges everywhere trying to survive from pillar to post until they make it to safe havens.

I am glad that Anne-Laure Bondoux has written this book for teenagers and middle school students. Nevertheless, it’s a story that adults must know also. We all have to be aware of the plight of refugees. Only by knowing about what refugees experience will we understand how vital it is for all of us to do our best to prevent more people from joining their ranks. Read A Time of Miracles now. It tells a story that we all need to hear.