The Parable of the House Builder

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, is accomplishment merely staving off entropy?”

Josh spoke thus:

There was a house builder who had built the highest house ever built.

The experts had told the house builder that the house couldn’t be built.  The experts had said a structure that tall would collapse under its own weight.

The experts had suggested a pyramid.  A pyramid, the experts said, was a proven model.  For tens of hundreds of years the pyramids of Giza had stood at the Sphinx’s back, and never had the Sphinx had to look back to be sure they had not fallen.  Yes, a pyramid, the experts said, was proven by history.

It wasn’t until the steel girder and the truss that the pyramids had been surpassed.  But of course they had been surpassed.

A truss, then, the experts agreed.  A box and a truss, that was the paradigm du jour.  A truss was light.  A box was sturdy.  Sideways force, downward force, diagonal force, all were contained by the box and truss.  Was not the Empire State a box and truss?  Was not the Sears tower?  Were not the Petronas Towers?  The new Freedom Tower, that was a box and truss.

The Bucky Dome had had its day.  A space-age shape to please the eye, excite the imagination, beckon the future.

Honeycombs, too, hexagonal and efficient.  Honeycombs were timeless.

So what structure had the house builder used, this house builder who had built the highest house ever built?

“I made the bottom floor,” the house builder explained, “And then I put the next floor on top.”

The experts were delighted by the house builder’s enigmatic reply.

Was the house builder tempted to buttress? one expert wanted to know.

Which walls were supporting walls and crucial to the design? another expert wondered.

The house builder did not speak of buttresses.  The house builder did not speak of supporting walls.  The house builder walked over to the house and gave it a push.

Floor after floor, card upon card, the house tumbled to the ground.

“What did you do that for?” everyone asked.

“It was a card house,” the house builder replied, “It was supposed to fall.”