The Guardian
headline on 7th July 2018 read:
Enough of the knob gags: penis size is a mental health issue
see -
Enough of the knob gags: penis size is a mental health issue
see -
The sub-text
introduction started:
An academic
studying penis size and self-esteem received many puerile messages.
But for many men, it's no joke.
by Rhiannon Lucy
Cossett
. . .
and there she
was, the penis-size reporter, a young lady: an image of her head and
shoulders was located to the right of the headline text wearing a
bright floral top with yellows, reds, and greens prettily massed as
flowers on white; with long, dark hair seductively draping over it -
lengthy, straight locks joined by a low, bridging eyebrow fringe
framing large, stunning, Egyptian-cat eyes. Oddly, the eyes appeared
to be staring slightly upwards at . . . ? Was it a high camera? Was
it the sly avoidance of an observation of significant penis size?
Maybe it was a surprise reaction to someone's 'member'? The very
restrained smirk seemingly awkwardly held back by the mouth pushing
out puffy, rosy red, flushed cheeks, suggested maybe the latter.
But enough of jokes. Wasn't the whole article about the subject not being taken seriously? The odd thing is how so many particular issues are now said be considered mental health issues. Just the other day, the news report carried the story that computer games were now considered a mental health problem - a matter of addiction. Gambling has been categorized similarly in the MH genre, in the same way that an exaggerated involvement in social media has been. More recently, narcissism has been spoken about as a MH issue. . . . and now architecture itself: see - ArchitectureAU Discourse Opportunity and autonomy: mental wellbeing (sic) in architecture Catriona Li Bisset.
The point is that everything is potentially a MH issue; that everything in life, in all of its aspects, involves MH issues. Buddhists speak about the approach to manage MH matters as 'right thinking; right feeling' - of ' right knowing.' The Greeks summarised the circumstance as 'Know thyself,' words that were engraved next to more advice: 'Nothing in excess.' Indeed, life itself is a MH challenge: but our era is becoming so rationally specialised that it perceives issues as fragments, as piecemeal, unrelated aspects of being, and then concentrates on the further differentiation of each isolated particle, with the specialist investigation and analysis of each minuscule portion of every tiny piece of information as if it alone was significant, while it is wholeness, too, that needs attention in all ways and varieties. This was once considered 'holiness,' and religion was once the manager of MH issues, with guidance like: 'in whatever state you might be in, be content.'^ Now we know religion as the opiate of the people, itself a numbing, misguided MH addiction to be wary of, avoided for its cranky extremes.
We need to forget
categories and analysis - well, no; we need to understand the
limited, the specific role of science, of our rational world, and
begin again to look at complex wholes, interrelationships, to
comprehend and accept the fuzzy, incomplete, enchanting, uncertain
world that we all participate in - to feel it, sense it, exercise
compassion in it; care for it without any demands for definition or
division; with tolerance - religion called the approach charity,
supported by faith and hope: love.^^
Whatever one
wants to name it, the challenge to change and recognise and respect
wholeness needs to happen. Concentrating on penis size and its
implications might be someone's speciality, jokes aside, but we must
come to understand how specifically limited the study is. What might
be next? Small breasts, hands, feet, fingers, eyebrows, finger nails,
nipples, etc.? . . my insignificance as an architect in a world of
heroes? - see ArchitectureAU above.*
The need for
wholeness and understanding, for respecting, and being aware of
divers interconnections with humility should be obvious to all who
look beyond the size and rating of anything. Consider the sun, the
moon, the stars, the earth, the sky . . and the question: what is man
that you are mindful of him?# Consider the sparrow; the lily.** In
one sense the proposition is Shakespearean in its awareness.
And all we can
try to be serious about is penis length? . . . and we make cocky
jokes about the work only in relation to penile references, rather
than promote pungently potent jibes to highlight the study's minority
role in life and living, its indulgent insignificance in the scope of
things. One could suggest that the study, the interest in the subject
itself, constituted a MH issue when taken out of context.
But what has this
to do with architecture? It was Frank Lloyd Wright who, in The
Future of Architecture, referred to 'the words of the architect
of ancient times called carpenter who gave up architecture to work
upon its source,' the beginnings of architecture. The words he cited
to were: Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not; they spin
not. (Matthew 6:28). It is advice that needs to be taken up without
delay and self-interested diversions, for we need to return to our
roots for inspiration and guidance rather than be led by circular,
analytical perceptions driven by the hedonistic self-importance of
social media - and penis size.
Tradition always
saw in origins, in inspiration, a role for remembrance, the
remembering of and respect for beginnings, a position that had
nothing to do with being bespoke.*** It was only in this sense of
understanding that one could truly be 'original.' This approach had
nothing to do with any personal preferences of self- promoted
geniuses. Yes, architects need to consider MH matters too, and think
of beginnings as remembered origins, sources in being, rather than to
seek out so-called originality perceived as an individual's unique
'self-expression': good work^^^ in architecture needs to be considered as the
breadth, length, depth, and height of genesis in the making of space and place## - not of penis size, when considered as a metaphor for self-importance.
The concept of
wholeness highlights the one dimensional hedonism in the detailed
consideration of penis length, while referencing a richness and
complexity in architecture that is so rare in our world today: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2017/12/frank-lloyd-wright-accommodating.html
^
Philippians 4 :
11 (KJV)
11 Not that I
speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I
am, therewith to be content.
^^
1 Corinthians
13:13 (KJV)
13 And now
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three: and the greatest of these
is charity.
* Google
'Architecture' and the array of portraits appears in this order:
Frank Lloyd
Wright; Frank Gehry; Zaha Hadid; Le Corbusier; Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe; Rem Koolhaus
It sseems that
this represents the Googled world of heroic importance.
# Psalm 8: 3 - 4
(KJV)
3 When I consider
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
thou hast ordained;
4 What is man,
that thou art mindful of him?
** Matthew 6: 25
- 34
***
Ananda
Coomaraswamy's writings are a good introduction to this concept and
its implications.
##
Ephesians 3:18
May be able to
comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height;
&
Bruno Zevi
Architecture as Space
^^^
see E.F.
Schumacher Good Work
Note: For more on
penis size, see The Guardian report by Brigid Delaney Big
dick energy: what is it, who has it and should we really care?
Brigid is illustrated as a head in a small red circle below the
headline text. Her hair is blonde, straight, and dark at the top; her
lips are bright red, matching the background of the encompassing
circle; the eyes look circumspect, suggesting some concern with the
subject. One could say the portrait does not exude BDE: see -
