Over the weekend we spent the afternoon at Jack London State Park. I had read about the ruined Wolf House but had not seen it previously. Ruins are fascinating because they are so symbolically charged. There is the obvious connection with mortality; the structure, like an old person, at the end of its life. But the ruin also embodies heroic persistence against time and nature. The remnants of the Wolf House survived a destructive fire and while lichen grows and nature tries to reclaim the stone walls, they resonate defiance. Preserving a ruin is perhaps one of the most philosophically challenging aspects of the profession.
