The Weight of Space

I am very sensitive to my environment - the way it looks, feels, smells. I've filled our home with bright, colorful art, pretty ceramic pieces, and strong, modern black furniture. I play music to reflect my moods, which change often - Otis Redding one day, Ingrid Michaelson the next. If I could keep plants alive, I'd have a house-full, for that green, oxygen-rich air they produce, but I settle for delicious smells from Anthropologie candles and homemade baked goods. My house is almost always messy because I share this space with my family - Ryan and our two kitties - but it feels like home.

The way a space looks and feels communicates volumes. Space can facilitate learning, peace, kinship, in the same way it can foster anxiety, depression, and low self-worth. An environment intentionally created with love will produce the same. An environment filled with tension will reflect as much. A space can demonstrate one's value - the wealthy are privileged to have big, airy spaces in safe neighborhoods, while the less-than-wealthy are relegated to tiny and cramped spaces with bars on the windows.

 This sentiment is communicated not-so-subtly at Penn, where I am paying tens of thousands of dollars to learn and grow....just taking a look at the Wharton School of Business in comparison to the basement classrooms in the Caster Building (where I take all of my social work courses) communicates perfectly who the money-makers are and which population is top priority.

I'm wondering what it does to one's psyche to never occupy a space that communicates a positive message. I'm thinking specifically of the kids I work with at my internship site - foster kids from the bad parts of the city, that are greeted each day by a school in a dirty building with half-painted walls and no regulation of temperature. I'm wondering if this commute to an ugly place from a ugly place takes a toll - tells the story that, even though staff here are smiling and saying a better life is possible, someone still couldn't bother to spring for printer paper or tissues or pens, or take the time to paint the walls to completion. The building feels defeated.

If it was true that everyone has the same opportunity to succeed in this country, than everyone would have that message communicated to them, in all ways, in every space they fill. Neighborhoods, schools, community centers - maintained with pride and intention. This does not necessarily take money, just mindfulness and concern for ourselves and each other. I have no other thoughts about it, other than it seems like a very possible thing to achieve on a small scale, everywhere. How can we bring our desired mindsets to life in the spaces we (and our community) occupy?