Last night Jan was one of a few graduates interviewed on a Zoom call for the Heart Core Leadership training we both did in 2019. The question of age came up. The youngest person on the call was 21. Before the training she always felt like she would like to do ‘this’ or ‘that’ ‘sometime’, but she was ‘too young’. Jan, at the other end of the scale is doing things that many consider themselves too old for, like starting new business projects around the world and having fun being in love.
That conversation about age reminded us of our visit last week in Vienna, Austria, where we were fascinated with the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000). He was an artist who felt the passion to bring nature into architecture, and people’s lives, during a time when architecture was celebrating rigid straight lines and monochromatic colors.
Hundertwasser proposed humans have 5 skins.
1) Skin of your body
2) Clothes
3) Home
4) Social Environment
5) Nature
So much of how we view ourselves and others can be determined by that first skin, our flesh. Not only color but condition of the skin often influences our opinion or reaction to another.
Since you are wrinkled, can you possibly…???
Your skin sags you must be …???
Look at you. You probably…???
Why bother asking…??? He/She is too old/young to understand.
We both loved his work and his approach to environment starting with our skin. How can we interrupt ourselves before we make unsubstantiated conclusions about ourselves or others?
Take a look at your own skin. What do or don’t you think about yourself as you observe it. What are you too old or too young for? And is it really true?
Let us know your thoughts.
Enjoy the photos of Hundertwasser's work.
P.S. We think we are the perfect age!!
