IN PRAISE OF BUILDINGS WITH
AMBIGUOUS MAIN ENTRANCES

A Farewell to a Building

“The spaces we create shape us.”
 -Sir Winston Churchill, on ordering the House
of Commons to be rebuilt just as it had
been before being destroyed during WWII.


I love buildings without main
                       entrances, ones that ask you daily
     to risk all, where each threshold
             promises adventure,
   and a simple mistake
         can mean whole moments of meandering
through who we are, time that’s

never lost,
           where anxiety abides and
there is no right answer–ever,
                      where everything is complex,
confusing, a pure collision
                         of choice and chance,

where most survive, save those
               consigned to lifetimes of
     wandering, searching
                for main offices they think
they seek. Instead,

       let’s praise a building with many
            entrances, one named Rogers,
   another Mitchell, or Marshall,
or Kirshner, one

   that says,  “Come hither, and I will
             show you many different things,”

reminding that
         we need not get
    anywhere,
                  that the journey,
        as they say,

is all.


May 2000
All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
Contact Bill Schechter