Straight or Round?

 It is still winter here, though we had a week or two of unseasonably warm temperatures that felt like spring. Now the temperature is down into the teens again, and probably that is good for all the trees and shrubs, at least the ones who weren't fooled into blooming or leafing out too early. If the past is any indicator, it can still frost here in Iowa in May. Who knows what surprises the climate will bring this year, but here, the landscape is still brown. I have a wonderful south-facing window in my office/massage room, and I get lovely views of sunsets, wild geese flying over, clouds crossing the horizon. However, the view from lower down is just the straight lines of buildings and our paved Prairie Hill Lane. 

It is during the winter months that I sometimes suddenly notice that we are surrounded by straight lines. Driving down a city street, without the lovely fluffy green of trees and lawns or the colorful flower beds, everything under the clouds is straight: homes built at right angles, roads straight, sidewalks, business buildings, all straight lines. When I was riding along in a small plane with my pilot neighbor last year, the landscape below looked like a checkerboard. We're used to this. It's not something that offends us. Actually, perfectly straight lines are part of our culture and seem right and proper, not really noticeable. Yet in the winter when there are not a lot of distractions from the plant world, the straight lines sometimes become more apparent.

Last week this phenomenon hit me again. I was out on the streets following straight lines amid a city of straight lines, and suddenly I wondered how this straightness affects us. Are there any straight lines in nature except the ones we humans make? When I got to my cozy home, it was still there! Straight lines everywhere! Walls, floors, windows, furniture, pictures, refrigerator, freezer and stove. Everywhere! I do understand that when you are building something like a house, it probably is easier to put it all together if you saw the wood in straight lines and pound the boards together in straight lines. There are clear reasons why we make square or rectangular things. But last week I began to celebrate any curved surface that I could find: the round pots of house plants, the mayonnaise jar, drinking glasses, bowls and plates. There is something soothing about a rounded surface. When we were first building our cohousing village here, I remember wishing I could have a round hobbit door, but that did not fit with the architect's or the contractor's visions. I would have had to live in Middle Earth, where round doors were common!

Years ago I knew someone who subscribed to a theory of avoiding right angles, intentionally widening angles in our homes. I can see that a wide angle is more welcoming, making us feel less cramped, more freed. But they're still straight lines. Having lived with straight lines all my life, I'm not particularly interested in pursuing a lifestyle with no straight lines. It would be pretty impossible. But I'm curious about how this layout of our civilized lives affects us, affects our thinking, our behavior, our place in the wider world of living things. For the past 6 months I've been living with two little kitties, and it's helped me see the world from a slightly wider perspective. Would there be any straight lines if our species weren't here? Is it just a manifestation of the industrial age? And what might we have lost, succumbing to creating everything as squares and rectangles? 

This has me curious enough that I've done a little research. And you can imagine what I found: indigenous cultures often avoid straight lines. Think of the historic Native American tipi, or the Alaskan igloo. These are but a small example of the many round indigenous homes that used to be common all over the world. Different indigenous tribes treat straight lines in their own unique way, but it is clear that they see the difference between a world with all straight lines and one which uses them carefully. Their traditions focus on living in harmony with the natural world, which is more rounded, less linear. So if they use a straight line, it is very intentional.The Navajo think of straight lines as "spiritually risky". If you are working on a design of some sort, they make sure that they leave an opening so that the design is not completely enclosed. This is supposed to promote mental health and harmony. In other words, make sure you leave a way out! Part of this philosophy includes not trying for perfection. We are all imperfect beings, doing our best in the world. Aiming for perfection simply does not work. Better to live cooperatively with your community, where you can all work together instead of competing with each other.

It's been helpful to read about cultures who actually think about how straight lines affect our species. Yet for the foreseeable future at least, we're mostly living surrounded by straight lines. Has this made us more competitive? Do we have a tendency to rush to the nearest goal rather than meander along the path? My hunch is that this is a huge influence on the way we see the world, yet it is so much a part of me that I don't have much perspective. I'd be glad for your thoughts!