Space

I live alone. I am fortunate to be able to afford my small attic apartment. It is my space.

The pressures of the human species on the planet are making aggregate living more necessary. The trend will continue to be building up. Eventually, massive cities, made up of consolidate urban and suburban areas, will edge against arable farm lands with climate change and desertification. Water recycling for human consumption will make this form of living more practical.

My need for individual space has been obvious to me since childhood. I was raised in a 7-room house occupied by six people. There was seldom a moment when I was alone to study or draw or read for pleasure. I remember yearning for privacy and cherishing any time I could spend in quiet solitude.

In my current urban environment, there is little quiet, even in my private space. Train horns, delivery trucks, contractors all contribute to a fairly constant background of man-made noise. At night, helicopters rattle overhead on their way to patrol the nearby highway. The white noise of my neighbors' televisions and sound systems is a constant. Recently, I was alone in the building and was stunned and thrilled by the quiet.

I believe that human beings, while being social creatures, need space. Obviously we need collective space to raise healthier food and to have clean drinking water. However, individual space is necessary for meditation, reflection and concentration. Retreating to a bathroom in a crowded living situation does not cut it for very long.

Hong Kong Apartments

There was a time, now lost, when experiencing individual human space within Nature was part of the normal human experience. Is there any wonder at our estrangement from Nature? As rich and poor alike get crammed into metro-urban environments, we deny the fact that our planet's atmosphere, the thing which supports our existence, is being degraded without care. In reaction to a lack of quiet solitude, the young generations are plugging their ears with personal noise, generated by electronics. This is treating one toxin to the mind with another.

Space, like air and water, is an element of human experience which goes unappreciated until it is no longer available. The cumulative effects of lack of personal space are obvious in overpopulated environments. The use of personal space for meditation, reflection and education has its obvious effects as well. As human beings, we have the ability to choose to a point. Once the planet becomes overpopulated to a tipping point, there will no longer be as many options.