THE RETROFUTURIST NOW

 

 It is Retrofuturist to recall how my father engaged full confidence and faith in building his business. He overcame the death of his own father which put him in charge of his family while still in grade school.  He had to quit school during the Great Depression.  The key was faith in action.  No particular religious affiliation, he still recognized a guiding force of goodness.  I have a name for that confidence in your rightness to be here and take action.  I call it "Intuitional New Thought" as espoused by many intelligent leaders.  Reading and theory were not dad's thing.

Surviving and gaining abilities fighting in Patton's Third Army prepared the young man for work to come.  He had an intuitive calculation of what efforts would lead to economic gain while building in an aesthetic way. Fortunate family situation was that a brother became an architect with Dad's support.  The architect then designed Frank Lloyd Wright style Usonian homes.  Another brother understood land sales, local government, and Federal G.I. Bill funding.

The home building business was ecological before that was even a concept.  Elm forest was kept intact for the home buyers and local community to enjoy. The mountain stream was protected and used as a feature for distinct walking bridges leading to each unique home.  Owner's cars had a garage area in back.  The sub-division was called "The Elms." The next project was called Cloverdale Drive and featured a horseshoe shaped road that defied the straight lines of previous city streets.   

A cousin of the Wittenberg brothers was sponsored to escape from war-torn Latvia where his parents had been farmers. The cousin became a master carpenter.  His parents had been  but put on a cattle train where they went  to the Gulag to die.  Anti-Communism runs deep in my family.

Endeavor also runs deep in my family. The question remains, "What do I do about it after missing the boat rather than profiting from my advantages?"  I had become rather cosmic after avoiding the hard work and attention to business that were my heritage. I worked hard at writing and music but I should have integrated what was in the building business of my family.  

What to do about it in this new world of opportunity?  That remains an open question to allow intuitive and faithful answers.  Yet it is important that I begin the work which I have done.  The 'futurist' aspect must allow for guidance from the source of my father.  Legacy is a living prospect.  Do it now.   

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What I have learned so far.
 
The mutual respect of people in the building trade, post world war 2, was a living dynamic of families and alliances.  This was not based upon administrative bureaucracy  and government management.  The living respect that people in the constructive trades shared manifested in business and craftsmanship. There is a similar dynamic in the best connections found online today.  

More to realize.