Stewardship

A recent column in the Cap-Journal from a man seeking to find his father's birth parents commented on a baby being left on the doorstep of a home that is no longer there. Last year a visitor rang my doorbell. A grandson from Texas of the original owners of my home wanted to see the family homestead. The built environment anchors us in our life stories. When my grandparents' home burnt down, I was devastated. I felt like an orphan. Some disasters cannot be prevented, but too many times people allow houses to fall into disrepair or to be chopped up into rentals they can bleed dry and then demolition. I recognize that it is highly subjective whether a house is worth saving and restoring but remember one thing . . . this was somebody's home. If we are good stewards in maintaining a house through the years, we are preserving somebody's memories, not to mention preserving a "marker" in our heritage and history. It is important that we develop a sense of stewardship of our built environment to stop urban decay and urban flight.