The Architecture of Becoming

There is a peculiar, quiet dignity in the act of preparation. We are so often obsessed with the finished product—the grand opening, the final note of a symphony, the ribbon cut—that we forget the world is held together by the people who arrive before the lights go up. Think of the stagehands in the dark, the scaffolding that disappears once the building stands, the unseen hands that smooth the path for others to walk upon. It is a form of service that asks for no applause. It is the labor of the interim. We spend the vast majority of our lives in this state of ‘not quite yet,’ moving through the scaffolding of our own ambitions, arranging the pieces of a life that is perpetually under construction. If we were to stop and look at the raw, unpolished edges of our daily efforts, would we find them less beautiful than the final result? Or is the beauty precisely in the unfinished, the messy, the becoming?

Erly Bahsan has captured this spirit in the image titled Under Construction. It reminds us that behind every grand monument, there is a human story being built in the quiet moments. Does this view of the work behind the scenes change how you see the world around you?