The Real and the Dream

I do not know if it is common to blend a construction drawing with a photo as I am doing for this project. It works for me. First I took the photo, then in the paint program, I used the eraser to remove the concrete deck. I put the photo on my drawing board and drew in the existing grade of the deck. The line below that represents what the grade should be. Evidently the existing slab was installed on top of the original porch deck. The existing porch deck is a couple of inches above the thresholds of the doors. With the grade established I have begun constructing the new deck, starting with the addition of drains. They are drawn slightly below the grade. The drain configuration is subject to change depending on how the slab is done. But for the meantime this is a reasonable representation of my desire.

This project comes to life through application of the imagination. I feel the project moving forward. I feel progress just as surely as if I were out there watching workmen going at it. I see the new construction emerging as sculpture. I hear the workmen jabbering and the machinery running and scraping. I touch a shovel handle. I smell the porta- potty. I taste the water from the orange keg. I'm out there sweating under the hot sun and it is happening. The action of wrestling with the drawings is dispelling the negative defeatism. When I can completely overcome my unbelief, I will be ready for the actual construction, somehow. By then I will have the completed plans firmly in mind and the plans will be crystal clear. When the actual construction begins, sound plans will give me a better chance of coming in on time and under budget, because I will have already encountered and overcome the problems involved. So it seems the imagination, through some mysterious process, is essential to achievement of restoration. A thing becomes real in your mind and through some mysterious process, the Infinite Intelligence manifests the thing concretely.