On Space

Today as I read Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space, I was reminded of a lecture by one of my favorite professors (and advisors) Frieda Knobloch. In the lecture, she said that in thinking about space and looking for ways in which people change space into place, it is important to "notice the absence." Place is not only built of what is there, but also of what is not there. The meaning of place is not only determined by the fullness of structures and decorations, but also by the emptiness that it holds in any form and for any reason.
This led me to think about one of my favorite piece of work by Laozi/Lao Tzu often referred to as Power of Nothingness or The Uses of Not. Below is one of its versions.

We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends.
We turn clay to make a vessel;
But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.
We pierce doors and windows to make a house;
And it is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends.
Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not.



ps for my friend Alice.
I remember you asked me one time why you feel so empty at times although you have people around you. My answer remains the same. That spot of emptiness will not go away, no matter how we fill it with homework, a bunch of families, trips, cigarettes, a husband, a couple children, or a run away to the corner of the Earth (if it has one). Running away does not help, embracing does. The spot of emptiness is what builds us as a person. And if I may add from a religious stand point, the emptiness is, in the word of Laura Story, "the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy." In other words, I think the emptiness is intended, for the only One Character who can make it (W)hole. Love you, friend.