Layers over layers
Oh man, I haven’t had the spirit to write since my last note. I’ve been reading up on hospitality and service-culture and thinking that those behind counters and desk at places that I like to frequent, or places that are memorable, the overwhelming feeling from these places is that I feel welcomed, and that there’s a feeling of being taken care of, safe.
I wonder when I slowly implement and design our face-to-face services, if I’m the right person to do this. I feel grumpy. I feel suspicious of people. This is the character buried deep below my many layers of identities and personalities, and sometimes I’m afraid that there are these small weaknesses in the layers that let the air of grumpiness and resentment seep out for public viewing. These wrinkles carry the weight of the layers. The construction project along with some challenges with authorities have been so scarring that sometimes I wonder if I’m the right person to run a guest-facing service.
My love language is ‘acts of service’, I think. And in my head, when visioning the artist residency and the residency in general, acts of service is what I lean on when in doubt. The vision is based on this particular language of service and sharing, and I hope that it shows, but yeah, this is a challenge; how to design a service that goes beyond experiences and personal traits of myself, yet making it consistent, authentic and true to everyone?
Lately, we’ve been having more people visiting and there’s not a single person who hasn’t been impressed by something about the house, whether it’s the view or the grandness of it despite its relatively small size, the kitchen or that the house floats above the landscape on four pillars, people have let out gasps. It’s good to hear and experience this because it provides the much needed counter balance to the exhaustion of process and progress.
Having had to give short introductions of the house to our visitors, I’ve noticed that whenever I speak about the challenges of construction work, it doesn’t sit right. I think people don’t want to hear it, they can’t see the challenges and aren’t convinced. Let’s stick to the positive things. People don’t want to hear awful things when there’s a nice view. It doesn’t look like there have been problems. People do however believe when I say that it’s gone over budget to a degree that’s incomprehensible…oops!
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Hugs,
Hans