The width of the belt of land along the water may vary with the type of water, the density of development along it, and the ecological conditions. Along high density development, it may be no more than a simple stone promenade. Along low density development, it may be a common parkland extending hundreds of yards beyond a beach.
Therefore:
When natural bodies of water occur near human settlements, treat them with great respect. Always preserve a belt of common land, immediately beside the water. And allow dense settlements to come right down to the water only at infrequent intervals along the water’s edge.
| roads at right angles to the water |
|---|
 |
The width of the common land will vary with the type of water and the ecological conditions. In one case, it may be no more than a simple stone promenade along a river bank a few feet wide—promenade (31). In another case, it may be a swath of dunes extending hundreds of yards beyond a beach—the countryside (7). In any case, do not build roads along the water within one mile of the water; instead, make all the approach roads at right angles to the edge, and very far apart—parallel roads (23). If parking is provided, keep the lots small—small parking lots (103). . . .
| 26 LIFE CYCLE* |
|---|
 |
139
. . . a real community provides, in full, for the balance of human experience and human life—community of 7000 (12). To a lesser extent, a good neighborhood will do the same—identifiable neighborhood (14). To fulfill this promise, communities and neighborhoods must have the range of things which life can need, so that a person can experience the full breadth and depth of life in his community.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As, first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then the soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
(Shakespeare, As You Like It, Il.viii.)
To live life to the fullest, in each of the seven ages, each age must be clearly marked, by the community, as a distinct well-marked time. And the ages will only seem clearly marked if the
ceremonies which mark the passage from one age to the next are firmly marked by celebrations and distinctions.
By contrast, in a flat suburban culture the seven ages are not at all clearly marked; they are not celebrated; the passages from one age to the next have almost been forgotten. Under these conditions, people distort themselves. They can neither fulfill themselves in any one age nor pass successfully on to the next. Like the sixty-year-old woman wearing bright red lipstick on her wrinkles, they cling ferociously to what they never fully had.
This proposition hinges on two arguments.
A. The cycle of life is a definite psychological reality. It consists of discrete stages, each one fraught with its own difficulties, each one with its own special advantages.
B. Growth from one stage to another is not inevitable, and, in fact, it will not happen unless the community contains a balanced life cycle.
A. The Reality of the Life Cycle.
Everyone can recognize the fact that a person’s life traverses several stages—infancy to old age. What is perhaps not so well understood is the idea that each stage is a discrete reality, with its own special compensations and difficulties; that each stage has certain characteristic experiences that go with it.
The most inspired work along these lines has come from Erik Erikson: “Identity and the Life Cycle,” in Psychological Issues, Vol. i, No. I, New York: International Universities Press, 1959; and Childhood and Society, New York: W. W. Norton, 1950.
Erikson describes the sequence of phases a person must pass through as he matures and suggests that each phase is characterized by a specific developmental task—a successful resolution of some life conflict—and that this task must be solved by a person before he can move wholeheartedly forward to the next phase. Here is a summary of the stages in Erikson’s scheme, adapted from his charts:
r. Trust vs. mistrust: the infant; relationship between the infant and mother; the struggle for confidence that the environment will nourish.
2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt: the very young child; relationship between the child and parents; the struggle to stand on
one’s own two feet, to find autonomy in the face of experiences of shame and doubt as to one’s capacity for self-control.
3. initiative vs. guilt: the child; relationship to the family, the ring of friends; the search for action, and the integrity of one’s acts; to make and eagerly learn, checked by the fear and guilt of one’s own aggressions.
4. Industry vs. inferiority: the youngster; relationship to the neighborhood, the school; adaptation to the society’s tools; the sense that one can make things well, alone, and with others, against the experience of failure, inadequacy.
5. Identity vs. identity diffusion: youth, adolescence; relationship to peers and “outgroups” and the search for models of adult life; the search for continuity in one’s own character against confusion and doubt; a moratorium; a time to find and ally oneself with creeds and programs of the world.
6. Intimacy vs. isolation: young adults; partners in friendship, sex, work; the struggle to commit oneself concretely in relations with others; to lose and find oneself in another, against isolation and the avoidance of others.
7. Generativity vs. stagnation: adults; the relationship between a person and the division of labor, and the creation of a shared household; the struggle to establish and guide, to create, against the failure to do so, and the feelings of stagnation.
8. Integrity vs. despair: old age; the relationship between a person and his world, his kind, mankind; the achievement of wisdom; love for oneself and one’s kind; to face death openly, with the forces of one’s life integrated; vs. the despair that life has been useless.