Ralph writes:
<<We understand that you are going to die someday, and are sorry, but to
intentionally destroy a portion of your work strikes me as inimical to our
beliefs as preservationists.>>

I know first hand from my years as a tradesman that a part of my spirit
passes into each object I have made. When I carve an Ionic capital part of
my own spirit is in there, along with the spirit of many others including, I
suspect, the Ionians who first sketched out and carved their volutes some
three or four thousand years ago. As preservationeers I wonder if we
preserve objects as an end in itself. Or, do we preserve objects as a method
of preserving the spirit within the objects? Let's say that the Ionic
capital I have carved remains in the rafters of the barn long after my
demise and there is no one left who knows about the carving of the capital.
The spirit may remain in the capital, but would have no utility since no
one knows about it--just another anonymous artifact of the past.
Is it possible to preserve the spirit without preserving the object? Let's
say the
capital is destroyed along with my body as part of the cremains. The
physical object that is the capital is lost but the spirit might remain
because this is such an odd situation that the story gets told again and
again--preserving the spirit with some possible utility. Even better, let's
say
the capital is installed on a building, then decays away some decades later
 and has to be replaced--preserving the spirit of the capital with a
definite utility. Perhaps
telling stories and passing along a trade practice such as laying out and
carving
a volute are more efficient, effective and satisfying ways to preserve an
Ionic
capital than caring for the original physical object.

Destroying the capital with my cremains does begin to seem a little
perverse--guess I've got one more project to complete before my demise:
building a new porch on the back of the house.

John

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>