A Sensible Act of Beauty

 Last week, Jay worked for hours to finish the tiling for the mosaic wall he is creating on one side of my office. It has been quite a process, one I think he never believed he would finish.

But this past weekend, he laid the last tiny piece of tile in place. We'll be grouting it at some point this spring (a season that seems to be filling up with chores as I write this) when we can also do two other—MUCH smaller—jobs at the same time.

In addition to the facts that this is beautiful and Jay made it, you know what else I love about this mosaic? All of the tile (and this is just a small segment of the wall) in this project was rescued from our local landfill.

Jay has worked for an upscale development company for several years and is regularly appalled by the waste they generate. Not of garbage but of perfectly good building supplies that are cheaper to dump than to recycle.

You see, recycling takes time—sorting, finding a place that will take donations, paying someone to do the hauling. If you dump it, all you have to do is put it in the back of a truck, drive to the local landfill, offload and that's it.

Cheaper in terms of time if not in terms of cash spent.

I have to tell you that the tile in this wall is very high quality, expensive stuff. And now it's been rescued in a sensible act of beauty.

Cool.