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I decided to start a modular furniture company named Cubular
FEAR! there are reasons all around us to be afraid.
ISIS, Ebola, financial collapse, to name some big ones; Getting sick, loosing your job, your car breaking down, to name some small ones Dying to name an inevitable one... You probably think that I am crazy to choose to not be afraid, or at least illogical. Shouldn't I be afraid; wouldn't that make me more prepared? No! It isn't fear that is going to get you through these trying times. It will leave you in the closet cowering, paralyzed, or reacting slowly and sloppily. Let me give you an example: Recently I watch a fencing match between student and teacher. I could tell that the student was capable but afraid. I could see clearly she knew what to do, but she was locked up inside herself. When the teacher advanced, she retreated too far. When she attacked she was unfocused. Her rhythm was all wrong, and she wasn't relaxed. She was trying too hard at the beginning of her attack, missing her opportunity to strike and then had to readjust her grip. The teacher, on the other hand, was relaxed. his movements smooth and subtle. He turned her sloppy attacks into opportunities; he didn't retreat, and he didn't overcompensate. His movements were sharper than his sword. He suddenly transitioned from holding his ground, to a quick but gentle thrust. He never put more effort into his movement than was needed. The situation reduces down to this: He was focused, she was not. He was efficient, she was not. He was effectual, she was not. His mind was clear, hers was not. He was void of fear, she was not. Like this student, when we choose to let fear in, our minds become clouded with anxieties; we become lesser versions of our greatest potential. I want to be the master version of me, so I choose to let my heart be filled with love. I ask God regularly to flood my heart with his love, because God is perfect, and God is love, and perfect love casts out fear. I am sure at this point you are thinking that I am the consistency of a bowl of Jell-O. I assure you I am not. I have gone through a lot for me to get where I am now. I have been struck by lightning. My father and I were homeless with land when I was in high school. During that time, we harvested trees from our land, mixed concrete by hand, dug post-holes through hard-pan, weathered the storms in a "pop-top" camper, and built the cabin. Oh did I mention, I also played on the football team, and got nearly straight A's in school? I am still not a bowl of Jell-O. I do Judo, and Ninjuitsu. I am an entrepreneur and a full time father/husband/student (some how the bills are always paid). I am a survivor of Crohn's disease and the VA system (that took nearly a year to get me an appointment to diagnose it). Life has never been easy here at the Tierney household, but I have never asked for it to be. I do have to admit that while I waited to find out what was wrong before I was diagnosed with Crohn's I was afraid. In fact every time I went to drink some coffee for a few years after that I was afraid. If you don't know the discomfort of Crohn's, I pray you never have to find out! But wait! There's more! One day... one loooong day... one long day, in a series of long days... I was very tired, and knew I was going to have to pull another all-nighter. I NEEDED coffee! So I decided that I wasn't going to be afraid anymore. I asked God to bless it, drank my coffee with confidence, and worked throughout the night. I finished my project and I never felt the excruciating pain that normally came with consuming caffeine. I have been drinking coffee since then and feeling fine! Moral of the Stories: Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Christ is the son of God. God is love. God is perfect. Perfect love casts out fear. So let your heart be filled with love, and join me in choosing to not be afraid! Join me in choosing to be the very best version of yourself that God created you to be! Unlock that hidden potential inside you! The other day it occurred to me that a huge problem that is never designed well at all is parking. I was trying to get to a restaurant on the strip in front of UT, and there was no obvious place to park. I ended up passing up the Chicago style pizza I wanted for someplace else that I could find parking for. You may be thinking "who cares? That's only one lost customer", but I say that the design should fundamentally bring in customers, not turn them away. Anyways, if it was one then, how often does it happen? probably more than just daily. So here is the concept that I want to dig into: Parking should be so obvious you can do it in your sleep! There ought to be something about the design, if it truly is a great design that says to the person, even if they don't speak the native language, "this is where you park, and this is where you enter". Before this happened, when I was designing for my class projects, my first thought was almost assuredly "how should the building function?" but now I see that the perception of the building plays a unique role in how it will function. I see now I must redefine how buildings should function before I design more. The primary function of every building is to serve the purposes of the people who use it. I am sure you are thinking "DUH!", but look at it in these incredibly simple terms with me. That means we would need to know why someone would want to have opened a pizza shop. Of course the answer is to make a profit, or stated even more clearly, to consistently bring in more money than they spend for the given period of time. If the design is great it will fully embrace that concept. The design will inherently find ways to increase revenue and decrease expenses; the design will increase revenue by maximizing the traffic of people coming through the business and it decrease expenses by being sustainable. Therefore it is critical that the way people enter the building is designed with great care. People come to the building by one of two ways: either they walk, or they use some technology such as busses, motor vehicles, or bicycles. Arriving by buss implies that a place to be dropped off will be an element of the design. Arriving by motor vehicles or bicycles implies parking but in two different ways. The motor vehicle is more difficult to maneuver than the bicycle in that you can not lift the vehicle over your head like you can with the bicycle (if you can, you have to send me a picture of that!) so there must be a greater degree of convenience to make the parking for the vehicles useful. Also while you are in a vehicle, your perceived reality is quite different from that of the person on the bicycle or the person who is walking. From this some useful design principles are emerging.
Wow! Architecture for Humanity sounds exactly like what I was thinking of when I posted my first blog. On their website, architectureforhumanity.org they posted about that enormous tornado that destroyed so much of Oklahoma. As I was reading about it I realized that it wasn't even a year later and we have all forgotten about it. It seems like we are content to hear the bad news, tell ourselves we can do nothing (at least we can't do anything without it becoming inconvenient) and forget about it.
This just doesn't seem right to me. We ought to collectively be doing something about these tragedies, and we ought to be hearing we are making progress. I am truly looking forward to completing my Master's degree in architecture so I can do much more than I am doing right now. I've been homeless, and I know the devastating impact homelessness has on even your state of mind. It was difficult at times to maintain a sense of self worth, and from time to time, to this day I still struggle with feelings of worthlessness. It has only recently become obvious to me how wrong those thoughts were. I realized that I am Gods creation, and because of my faith in his son, I am also his son. I realized that I should walk with my head held high, because I mattered; That is my point right there, we all matter. These people who desperately need our help are so easily forgotten, they are no longer news worthy! I expect to be researching Architecture for Humanity some more, and I will let you know what I find and how we can help. Michael Tierney This is my first blog. It will be short and sweet. I will likely be blogging about architecture and art, but really I will be blogging about my life and my thoughts on art and architecture, and more specifically, the intersection of the two. I am passionate about people, and the spaces they use. I am interested in how they use those spaces, and how we can improve someone's life by the rearrangement of these basic elements that make up what we call a building. I am also interested in using the talents and skills I will be learning in architecture school to someday bless the poor and minister to the survivors of whatever might be the most recent natural disaster. Like I said, I am passionate about people. I think it would be good to make a beautiful building, but it would be awesome to be a blessing that few others could be to those in such great need. Because of this you may find from time to time, I will be blogging my most recent epiphany as I continue to walk with the Lord. Whether you like it or hate it, this is sincerely who I am and what I care about, and so this is what you will get. I hope you are inspired and I hope you like it. Feel free to write, but I reserve the right to sensor anyone who is being vulgar. Thanks! Michael Tierney ABOVE: A younger version of myself in front of the cabin my father and I built while I was in high school. We started out with only our land and our faith, and we finished with a house, some amazing memories, and an awesome testimony!
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AuthorMy name is Michael Tierney. I am passionate about people, the spaces they use, and how those spaces affect their lives. Archives
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