Opinion: There's wisdom in turning to epic home improvement in the face of COVID-19 | emfarrelly
It’s Easter, season of death and rebirth, the loveliest time of year. Yet everything is out of joint. George Pell walks free, a man resurrected, but the rest of us are in prison. Christians push to legalise not freedom from discrimination, but the right to discriminate. People die randomly. Neighbours inform on neighbours. The world’s squares, designed for bustle, are deserted. Its park benches, meant for welcome, are criss-crossed in crime tape.
There’s not a craft tool or spinach seedling, not a gas canister or watering can to be had. People are moving house, shifting walls, repainting, landscaping, gardening while they can. It’s survivalism, rooted in suburbia’s founding belief that if you can grow your own carrots you’ll be okay. But it’s also nesting. This may not ring with the gravitas of spiritual rebirth. Yet there’s wisdom here, all the same.
This is not judgment. I’m not being an architectural snob. This is about the way we invest ourselves in our surroundings.Credit:Just as yoga entreats you to infuse your mind throughout your body, so home, properly understood, entreats you to infuse yourself – your true, funny, inventive, sideways, imaginative, critical, neurotic or just plain weird self – throughout your material world.
I also like places that offer things to do. Work spaces. Chook gardens. Light-dappled reading nooks. Fireplaces. Potting terraces. Studios. Sure, a view is nice, but something to do and somewhere to do it. That’s a real treat. A dwelling is far more than a commodity. It’s an extended self.
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