The Theory

The name, “Highways and Hallowed Halls,” came to me one night during a fraternity ritual (seriously) while thinking about my undergraduate thesis on highways and my personal experience within the most significant moments, the “hallowed halls,” of college.

I realized in that moment that Highways represented the circulation and movement in our lives. Highways are “progress.” They are the distance that separates and the infrastructure that connects. “The highway” as an experience passively shapes our identity both in positive and negative ways. It give us confidence to move on, but maybe sometimes too quickly and too often.

Hallowed Halls are the places where our lives intersect, places of significance. These places are where bonds form between each other, our communities, and the greater society. These are the places where people gather to find fellowship, celebration, and rebellion. These are the places worth remembering and for which we fight. These places introduce us to political debate, spiritual communion, and friendship. These are places where we form and reform our identities in the context of association.

In the black-and-white banner photo of this blog, there is (from left to right) a church (Sixth Mount Zion), the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike construction site and a public housing complex: a hallowed hall, a highway and Gilpin Court which I consider to be more of a conflicted space. Public housing in Richmond is both temporal (inhabited by a displaced population) and also significant as it is a home, filled with layers of memory, community and culture. There is a sense of loss when you are not in control of what is meaningful – when your home, church, park, etc. can be taken away. It doesn’t make them less special, but their sacredness has been reduced.

Over the years, my interests on this blog have involved cities and urban design, faith, nostalgia, memory, significance, community, identity, and power. More recently I’ve been writing some about gardening and sexuality as well. No matter what, I’m always thinking about the tug-of-war between the Highways and the Hallowed Halls, trying to hold on to what is special, to let go when it’s time, and embrace both as natural and good.