Builders of Harmony

This is excerpt from book I recently read.

'Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds'  Olds upon discovering the English countryside:

"I realized that the trees and fields, the buildings and barns, the small villages and narrow winding roads all fit together seamlessly, blended by time into harmony.  No one thing intruded on each other.  Each fit the scene as though a natural process had ordained symmetry."

Kind of sounds like what Brookswood and it's trees have become over time.

This is what I want Developers and Planners to realize.

Development doesn't have to be Progressively Invasive.

You don't have to destroy the character of a community by widening beautiful two lane country roads everywhere.  You don't have to crush and tear things apart to build, and you don't have to bulldoze everything and then leave a few sprigs behind in your wake after replacing every tree on a lot with a 'Unit.'  You can be more than just builders plugging homes and apartments into the earth, you can be sculptors creating something you can be proud of, and finally rid yourselves of that nagging feeling of discontent over what you are slapping together now.

My dad was a builder.  He and his crew made many of the cottages and homes in Ontario's Cottage Country.  Today's builders jokingly say they hate him for it is always much harder to tear apart the places he has built for they were always solid and true, and he guaranteed that not a mouse could squeeze into them.  Looking back at him I can say that he was a craftsman in every sense of the word, he built structures to fit with the land and he maintained that harmony.  He built around, not through.  He could teach much to todays builders, even the ones who THINK they are good builders.

You can either create or destroy communities.  It may eat a little more into your profit margins, and may take more of an effort but I think it's worth it.  Maybe it's time to consider more closely your role in the community...

...and set the bar higher.