online: 27 december 2004
26, 27 december 2004

25 december 2004 trust the world


14:18 There is no public transport today so i walked for an hour to get to the southern edge of the heath (for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks during which i was confined by a viral infection). I saw only a dozen or so people on my way through empty streets but now i'm here i see dozens, plus dogs and small children, probably walking off Christmas dinners. Some are even running. ...

...and now, having rested, i rise to walk up Parliament Hill... I pause at what i call Panorama Path where i turn round to look again at central London. Most it is under soft bluish cloud but here on the hill there is mild sunshine and almost no traffic noise and the sound of only one aeroplane.

At the top of the hill are about 60 people, mostly facing south to look over the city. Two are struggling to get kites to fly but the kites are on the ground...

...after walking as far as 'the dark wood' i turn to walk back because i urgently need to reach the public toilet. When i get there it is closed so i set off to find a pub that might be open, even today... but the two i find are also closed... i find a filling station with a toilet but the man there tells me it's broken, and locked, and he has no key... by this i am near to bursting... then i remember that i am near to the studio i used to rent. I walk there as quickly as i can, hoping that the owner is in and, when i press the bell, the door opens and there he is, my friend Heini. I don't know what i'd have done if he and his family had been out... So i was able to relieve my bowel in the little bathroom where, 10 years ago, i used to do that every day or so! What a relief.

How pleasant it is when, in what seems like an insoluble difficulty, someone or something comes to the rescue... I guess the world is more helpfully organised than it may seem ... and we can trust it far more than we do... (for instance it was surely a mistake not to knock at the door of the first private house i came to and ask for help!) ...that could be an important principle for both design and education: design in such a way that the helpfulness of people and things is evident - and learn to trust that this is so... simplify plans... eliminate worries...





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