The Golden City

“Man makes a sacrifice of effort and skill in embellishing canvas, stone, or metal. By embellishing them he gives them true substance, seeking the sense of permanence which is so much part of reality. His goal is to achieve dignity, invite aspiration, and perhaps attain glory. Man, in this way, reaches upward to the heavens, a striving not disdained by the majesty of God, as St. Augustine reminds us.”

• The Golden City, Henry Hope Reed, Jr. (119)

What happens when man puts too much value on convenience? This is a question I’ve been wrestling with for some time now. Convenience, as defined in the Oxford American dictionary, is “the state of being able to proceed with something with little effort or difficulty.” Convenience is a quality had by the supermarket, as it offers many foods in one place, as opposed to having to gather all the different foods of life in different places, which would be inconvenient. If one had to go to the chickens for the eggs, the cow for the milk, wheat for flour, and the lake for some fish, grocery shopping would look quite different. Recently, my wife got the new iPhone, and as many others will confirm, it is an incredible tool, making many aspects of life convenient! Weather, news, games, email, instant messaging, alarms, the entire internet, all at the tips of one’s fingers. One could get a Ph.D. from staring at one’s palm if dedicated enough. There is good reason to be psyched about all the advances in technology. Other conveniences of our time include, but are not limited to cars, airplanes, drive thru windows, and the list goes on. They hardly need mention.

With all of these advances in convenience, it is in many ways the god of our age. It something doesn’t make life easier, cheaper, or quicker, it is probably the wrong solution. Resulting is a the demonization of that which isn’t easy, quick or cheap. As all our difficulties are shown the door, we forget that some of the difficulties we face are good. These were the difficulties undergone as sacrifice. The permanent institutions of life deserved our sacrifice. Success in marriage and family life meant sacrifice. Fidelity to God meant sacrifice, every Sunday at least. Social concord meant sacrifice, in the form of some offering themselves to serve in government and in the military. Sacrifice is now something archaic, that has no place in a world of condoms, no fault divorce, and plastics. In Henry Hope Reed, Jr.’s The Golden City, the author makes it evident how the modern movement in architecture, focused as it was on functionalism (i.e. convenience!), beauty became the victim of our convenience worship. Beauty demands sacrifice, and it is something that is worthy of it.

Reed, quoting the italian architect, Leone Battista Alberti, writes “When we lift up our eyes to heaven, and view the wonderful works of God, we admire him more for the beauties which we see than for the conveniences which we feel and derive from them” (Reed, 119). Somehow, whether it is in the fast lane on the way to work, or sitting in front of the big screen plasma tv on Sunday afternoon, or flying the ocean in six hours, there are still moments when we know that these conveniences do not satisfy the longings of the human heart. We want more, and more will mean some inconveniencing from time to time.