That is the question my mind has been toying with after last night’s lecture–Would you rather help 50 people or 50 billion people?
Last night, I attended a lecture by Cameron Sinclair, the director of Architecture for Humanity. A man with a great sense of humor, this man is inspiring for his humility, his passion for architecture, and his dedication to humanity. Sure he lives off an annual salary of $12,000 but at only 33, he has done more for humanity than 100 architects combined will have by the time they die. At 23 he found his architecture career unfulfilling and took the bold step of contacting the UN because he wanted to build a refugee camp. Since then, for the last 10 years he has trudged along many setbacks to create an organization that now serves the lower 90% of the world population with the help of volunteer architects, and with the monetary recognition he’s received, created the Open Architecture Network which shares knowledge about humanitarian architecture. So while this guy is worrying about how to house people who have lost their homes from natural disasters or life disasters, and how to build schools for children who wouldn’t have an education otherwise, here I am figuring out how to get the most square footage possible out of a site for a luxury hotel and condo building so that people can eat their caviar, and worrying about whether the boy I went on a date with on Sunday is going to call. Now that’s a reality check. If only we could all learn to live this way, to find something we are so passionate about that we would give up life’s luxuries, which I am finding are actually quite unfulfilling.
