The medieval Roman Catholic Church recognized two opposite roads to grace: the via negativa of the monk's cell and the hermit's cave, and the via affirmativa of immersion in human affairs, of being in the world whether or not one is of it.

ACI's Hong Kong station manager was at a loss as to how best to proceed. Flight 103's brakes had been cooled with blowers, and the plane towed to its gate. It had three blown tires, one had burst on the runway when the aircraft's anti‑skid system failed and two had deflated when their red-hot brakes had overheated the tires and the fuse plugs had blown. The tire that had blown on the runway had disintegrated and punched two holes in the aircraft's undersurface. The holes were small, but they had to be fixed.

I have read Stories, (I fear, too true ones;) how young Lords, like you, Have thus besung mean Windows, rhymed their Sufferings Ev'n to th' Abuse of Things Divine, set up Plain Girls, like me, the Idols of their Worship, Then left them […]

Consistency, strength and efficiency have been abandoned for lightness, transparency, intelligence and density of information. ln this sense, the retromodern industrial figurations of the Center Pompidou in Pans by Piano and Rogers, and the Collserola Tower in Barcelona by Norman Foster are obsolete.