5:00PM
As I walked near my old middle school, I noticed that the fence around tennis courts had been torn down and orange barrels were blocking off the space. I saw some of the concrete busted up and I thought back to when I used to play tennis there and the raucous games of street hockey we’d have. It got me thinking about whether they were going to build something new there or were just doing work to maintain the quality of the courts—this got me thinking about the issue of build vs. maintain.
Build vs. maintain. Over the last few years, I’d say that I’ve strongly preferred the former: build. I’ve built new websites, new logos, new brands, new romantic relationships, new friendships, new business partnerships, new podcasts, and many new things. On the walk I thought about how it has been getting out of hand. For example, when I built iFeelio, I really loved using it. Then I built a website for it and built a personal website. Then I created Emotional Self-Defense and built a website for that. And then a podcast for that. And so on and so forth. Over time, iFeelio started to fall apart—the phone operating systems evolved and the code no longer worked. Because I hadn’t programmed in a while, my skills at programming had also atrophied, no longer keeping up with the new languages that people were building.
I believe life is actually more about maintenance than building. That when we come into this world, we’re given a body and a life that works, and over time, we have to maintain it. By that, I mean strengthen it, protect it, and repair it. I think most of civilized life is about maintaining as well. If I build a house, if I’m lucky, it will stand for a while, but things will start to break inside or animals will start to find holes and invade or weather (wind, snow, rain, sunshine) could degrade the outer materials.
I feel a bit relieved to think that life is about maintenance. It’s not about finding the right person, it’s about maintaining the relationship. It’s not about building the best solution, it’s more about maintaining it.
I walked through the neighborhood and saw many lawns looking more unkept that I’ve ever seen them. I wonder how keeping a lawn mowed is really a practice for maintenance. I wonder how quickly society would fall apart if there were no maintenance. If the roads weren’t fixed, the internet protected, the water pipes strengthened. If things were left to just fight against the elements. I imagine it would be a different world, one more natural, but with less of the stuff we take for granted and truly appreciate.
Maybe if we stay in quarantine long enough, we’ll see just how important maintenance is. Who knows?
5:10PM
