I’ve seen the future and it is leafy
The quickest way to envision the near future is to travel into wealthy neighborhoods.
Big screen TVs
Mobile phones
Dishwashers
Washers and dryers
Telephones
Refrigerators
Bathrooms (indoors)
Home delivery
These are just a few of the things that came to luxury homes first. Now they’re commonplace.
The art world delivers me to many an affluent community. In fact today I turned into an equestrian estate in Kentucky — to deposit a bronze sculpture and a painting purchased at our gallery. I found myself admiring the majestic home there as I turned up a hill, only to discover it was the horse stables.
The point is, I’ve seen the future and it is leafy. It is verdant.
That bodes well for the world. Want to lower a home site of value? Then denude the surrounding land of foliage.
Enter any affluent area and you’ll see trees and shrubs abounding. Even in zero lot line suburbia.
Affluent people know intuitively that nature inspires the best in them. Plant life lures out your creative zen. Fresher air makes your brain percolate.
Not long ago I saw a field of wild grasses on the rooftop of a garage. That’s a juxtaposed kind of wonder — architecturally and natural. Simultaneously.
In the future more will be planted. I’ve said it before: In the future more green life will be planted than destroyed when a new construction project begins.
Plant life will swish in terrarium balconies girding skyscrapers like hula skirts. Shrubs and vines will stair step up outer structures from ground to roofline, no matter how tall the building. There will be be inner sanctuaries of natural growth open to the sun above.
It’s coming.
It’s the one thing we don’t see in future movies — the overspilling of the natural world in and around human spaces. The future is seen as cold and sterile — or dystopian and trashy.
Neither is true. That is not where we’re going. Chicago has more greenspace now than it did two decades ago. Cities that want to thrive are figuring out how to naturalize.
Want to get to your own personal future faster? And the calm and creativity and abundance there?
Surround yourself with leafiness. In every way that you can. The hum of nature will beckon the best from you. Emotionally, creatively, spiritually.