Truth Against the World

The family motto of the Lloyd Jones family (Frank Lloyd Wright's mother's family) was "truth against the world." Our tour guide cited the reason for this motto to be that their family was progressive for their time and thus needed to fortify their principles with the concept that their ideas were truthful and worthwhile despite the lack of agreement among their contemporaries. While, this may be true, the motto seems a bit arrogant. Though, it was clearly fuel for the Frank Lloyd Wright fire and a foundation from which he was able to create over one thousand buildings.

For hours after visiting Taliesin, my dad and I debated the merits of having a family motto, what exactly a motto serves to do and then what the Gingold-Gerhardstein motto might be. We arrived upon themes of service, commitment, boldness, impatience, but have yet to coalesce them into a tidy motto. Motto creation is a healthy exercise I would recommend to families far and wide. Though, you may arrive at the decision to hire a consultant to figure it all out.

Other things learned today include:

• When Frank Lloyd Wright was 17 he changed his name from Frank Lincoln Wright to Frank Lloyd Wright to honor his mother, whom he sided with in his parents' divorce at the time.
• Frank Lloyd Wright had three wives. The third of which, Olga, was a devout follower of the Greek mystic, George Gurdjieff. Her devotion led her to believe many ideas, one of which was that 99% of people are sleepwalking. I plan to research him more for guidance during my year on other things.
• Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's home for 47 years, was built just below the top of a hillside, hence the meaning of the word taliesin which means "brow." He did this on purpose as he felt if you build on top of the hill, you lose the hill. All of his buildings attempted to respond to the nature around him. He was using the word organic far before the hipster-hippie movement of today.
• In any tour group, there is always one finnicky person who grates at your happiness. Such an event proved true today when one lady mocked the Taliesin literature demarcating their 100 year celebration after we completed our tour. We are all happy and inspired, settling into the shuttle that will take us back to our bike when the lady assumes a high-pitched tone harkening back to the teasing of junior high and says, "100 years for Taliesin, isn't that nice, oo la la..." I guess she did not like the tour.

In addition to time with Frank, we enjoyed the enchanting countryside of southwestern, WI. We changed up our route several times throughout the day, each time finding ourselves pleasantly surprised with the sheer beauty of it all. I was slightly convinced that Wisconsin planned it all out for us in preparation for our arrival. The blue sky, the rolling hillsides of autumn hues, the windy roads with barely a car in sight. This was a perfect day. All 73 miles of it from Barneveld to Soldier's Grove.