Students of Our Surroundings

In the wave of crime scene investigator shows on television, the message has been communicated loud and clear: human beings always leave traces of themselves wherever they go. This is true in both a physical and spiritual sense. Whether it is our fingerprints, traces of hair or other physical relics of ourselves, our presence is written like a text on the landscapes that we travel. But we also leave ourselves behind in the intangibles like ingenuity and creativity that we apply to the spaces and buildings that we create. Like artists that have a unique style and approach, so also do all human persons as they craft and carve out the space of their lives and affect this world that they wrestle with existence in. I wonder, though, do the places and spaces we live in also affect us in turn. That is, are we merely creators of the architecture of this world, writing a story about ourselves, or do we also assume the position of students and open ourselves up to being affected by buildings, rooms, communities, and neighborhoods? Do we not only write the stories of our lives into this world, but also read from some text outside of ourselves, and seek to learn and grow from it?

In one week I will be graduating from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As I reflect on my time here, I consider the ways in which I have contributed to this community with papers, discussions, and other labors. But I am also drawn to thinking about how I am the product of a very specific kind of place and community in a certain design and time. Explicitly I have been shaped by fellow students, professors, staff, administrators, and friends. But more subtly I believe that this physical space, this collection of buildings, the dynamic movement of people throughout, have also affected me. When I first arrived at Calvin, I was disoriented by the layout of the campus because there was no central building. Instead, campus architects had designed the commons lawn to be the center of campus. Over the years I have grown to be comfortable with this arrangement, even regarding it as second nature. I sometimes have to remind myself that when visitors ask me where places are on campus that it in fact is not an easy place to navigate. I wonder though, has this particular example of structure and design affected me in significant ways. Has this campus taught me to be comfortable with ambiguity, and how the absence of physical buildings can in fact make room for the presence of people and all the wonder that that entails?

If it is true that we not only affect and inscribe ourselves on the places we create, but are also affected by those places and spaces as well, then this should give us pause as we consider our building endeavors, where we live, where we work, and where we play. These are not insignificant decisions. There are myriads of things in life that are outside of our control that will undoubtedly affect and shape us, but we can give some thought in advance to the environments in which we place ourselves and also give ourselves up to being affected by.