Perhaps nothing says more about a community than what it values. What we hold dear and protect is, in essence, who we are in our personal lives, in our businesses, and in our society. Preserving our heritage says something about us: that we honor those who have gone before, that we appreciate the legacies and lessons of the past, and that we have a bright hope for our future. Preservation is optimistic by nature. It requires a belief that what we value should endure as a gift to the next generation.
Every individual and every business or foundation that joins us in preserving the Felt Estate confirms the belief that together we can make a positive difference in our world. In the spirit of a community barn-raising, we can pool our efforts to create something beautiful, lasting, and beneficial to the lives of the people in our community and beyond. Every friendship we make and every partnership we forge along the way creates a stronger, more vital community where people want to work, live, play, and visit.
Preservation of beauty, culture, and knowledge is not optional in a fully alive community; it is essential. Those who preserve land and architecture know this to be true: The best that is within us is nurtured by the best that is around us.
When I first joined this project, it was all about saving a house. Now the project is about so much more: the restoration of lives is infinitely more important in the grand scheme of things than the restoration of any structure. I joined out of interest; I stay out of love. I fell head over heels down the hill, over a stump, and in love with the volunteers and friends of the Felt Estate. The members of the Felt family are members of my family. The diehard volunteers who slog through mud to work on the house, giving up so much personal time, have become not just my partners in this project of the FeltMansion, but my lifelong friends in the greater project of life.
Together, we have re-learned all those essential lessons learned in Kindergarten: share your toys; play nice with the other children; there’s always tomorrow; pizza is fun; someone needs to be the teacher; don’t eat anything chalky; nothing is perfect, sometimes messy is fun; it is best to be potty-trained (and even better to have working potties!); sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t; sometimes the hamster, no matter how loved, dies, but sometimes he doesn’t; no one fights over the last carrot stick, but be careful around the donuts; Kindergarten prepares you for first grade, and first grade for second grade: you are never finished learning.
And perhaps the greatest lesson of all, taught to me by a good friend: Love doesn’t make the world go around, but it makes the trip worthwhile.