We have a habit of thinking that the deepest insights, the most mystical, and spiritual insights, are somehow less ordinary than most things – that they are extraordinary.
This is only the shallow refuge of the person who does not yet know what he is doing.
In fact, the opposite is true: the most mystical, most religious, most wonderful – these are not less ordinary than most things – they are more ordinary than most things.
It is because they are so ordinary, indeed, that they strike to the core.
… What makes them hard to find is … that they are so ordinary, so utterly basic in the ordinary breat and butter sense – that we never think of looking for them.
… You may wonder – if the rules are so simple to express – what is there that makes a builder great?
And indeed, there is an answer … it takes almost inhuman singleness of purpose to insist on them – not to let go of them.
Christopher Alexander – The Timeless Way of Building
