Dueling bromides

So is it God who's in the details, or is it the devil? 

For Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who, if he didn't say "God is in the details" first, said it famously enough to get the credit, perfection lies in the unity of the overall design with the smallest aspects of how that design is executed. The IIT campus is beautiful, whether in plan or on foot. Crown Hall, its jewel, is beautiful to look at and to be in. And when you get right up close to it, and examine the choice of glass, the choice of steel, and how the two materials meet each other, those things are beautiful also. 

Watch a graphic designer spend hours kerning type, or a film editor cutting in take after take, or a writer polishing a fifth draft. They're looking for perfection because they know God is in the details.

So where did the devil come from? I suspect he came in, as he often does, in the bags of money. The devil is in the details for business people, who know that even small things mean the difference between profit and loss, success and failure, job or the unemployment line. It's not about the quest for beauty, it's about the avoidance of mistakes. 

No moral, just a reminder that the rhetoric you choose has consequences. As you struggle with details on your next project, are you searching for beauty, or trying to avoid screwing up? 

History, memory, meaning

Watch out, this is going to be one of those sententious "put Christ back in Christmas" rants, only it's about Memorial Day. 

Once upon a time, before its meaning was homogenized, Memorial Day was Decoration Day, when people decorated the graves of the Union dead from the Civil War. It was a holiday that honored people who had given their lives to end slavery. (The South, recognizing the anti-slavery connection, usually celebrated on days different from the the North.)

Eventually there were too many wars to remember the meaning of each one, let alone give working people a day off for each. But by forgetting where this holiday comes from we forget that all wars are not equal. We forget that slavery, the fight to end it, and the subsequent battle for racial equality, are the central narrative of the past two centuries in this country. 

OK, back to slow-cooking those ribs. We'll talk about this again on November 11th.

It's just a stupid pun

But it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Once you're socialistmedia for your tweets, why should you be something different for your blog? The moral of the story is that cute, in all its tooth-aching sweetness, conquers meaning. 

So no, this isn't a blog about socialist media, socialism, or even the media. I won't mind if some old Trotskyist, sitting on a park bench somewhere in New York, doodling away on his iPhone, tattered Gristede's shopping bag full of ancient and irrelevant literature at his feet, stumbles across it. I'll be pleased. But he'll be disappointed. 

I will try to offer ideas that don't confirm what you already know. After all, if you could think of it yourself, or write it yourself, why would you waste your time reading it from me?