Out Of Season

// Trevor Leyenhorst //

This house has been abandoned to increasing disrepair. When a well-built structure is properly maintained, it can last for decades, or in some cases for centuries. But a house with no inhabitants to care about the rotting walls and sagging roof will eventually collapse.

This can be viewed as disheartening or encouraging. On the one hand, we have the conclusion of "Ozymandias", chastising human hubris:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Nothing beside remains. Even the grandest and most glorious of cities will crumble as the hourglass turns. On the other hand, there's the perspective of ecofriendly entropy: Earth will destroy everything we do; our species' influence is transient; "This too shall pass."

I first encountered the story of "this too shall pass" in Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, of all places. Here's the version I remember: A king asked his advisors to come up with a statement that would always be relevant, or he would execute the lot of them. For many days and many nights, the wise men pondered this question. (I assume they would have kept pondering indefinitely, eager to keep their heads, if they hadn't come up with something.) Finally, the advisors went to the king and offered up the phrase, "This too shall pass." The king was pleased and the wise men lived.

So that's what I think about abandoned houses!