We forget, today, that most things are still made by people, in one way or another. Most experiences we share are good or bad because of the people we are interacting with. Sure, many things are stamped out by automated robotic machines-maybe most things are. But, at some point in the stream from raw materials to your hand, people had to perform some action to change sand grains into an iPhone-it doesn’t happen all by machines. I’m fortunate enough to work in an industry where most of my finished product is hand crafted. Yes, many components may be milled or stamped by machines, but the preparation, construction, installation, finishing of everything is done by hand. By people. People we know, we talk to , we learn about. People with specific skillsets that make the difference between a customer bragging about their Myers Homes product/creation and not. These people are irreplaceable. Their skillsets may be mimicked by someone else, but not replaced. For those that read my last post in October (sorry, I’ve been distracted and haven’t written since then), you might remember that our architect Bob M. was fighting toe to toe with cancer. Today, devastatingly, he lost his fight. Well, he didn’t really lose -he finished his fight. He finished his fight, after giving every last ounce of effort and courage, every last ounce of everything he had to give, to see his children grow into great kids. He finished, undefeated.
I am now building (you can see our progress on our current projects page) his last home design. Someday his children will know the brilliant and wonderful designs he created for all of us to build or appreciate. Soaring, wild staircases (annoyingly impossible to build- well, almost impossible), swooping ceiling lines, window arrangements that created wondrous interplays of light and shadow, mundane but perfect arrangements of hallways and rooms to create living spaces that you never want to leave. Solutions to design problems that are elegant, simple, practical and buildable. Plansets that are dead nuts right on perfect. That make every one of his designs unique, special, wondrous and beautiful. That make them of a lasting value. That make them impossible not to want to keep living in for forever. His children, who already know how hard he fought to be with them, will someday know how people like me also appreciated his beauty as a person, and his genius in his chosen craft. We appreciate that we benefited from his fight to stay here for them, to be here for them, because he was still here for us too.. And we, like they, are devastated by his loss.
Bob is irreplaceable.
For anyone interested, I am fighting back against Cancer. Not only for Bob, but for everyone I know that is fighting this fight, which is too many people. I ride in the Velosano bike event to raise money to fund research to find cures. Every week I train so on the day of the event I can ride 100 miles as hard as I can, to fight through, in a small way, as hard as Bob fought. If you want, you can fight too (here’s a link: http://ccf.convio.net/goto/robertmyers )
Money=research=cures
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