Whatever building you’re in right now will likely cease to be one day. If it’s not gutted, renovated and remodeled, it will eventually burn down, get torn down or once the humans are gone, nature will take its course. The building you’re in is just a stage.

Staging is a huge part of buildings. Staging is the temporary structure build around the exterior of something so it can be built. Staging creates a functional support network for people to reach things and places they couldn’t without it. Staging is support. Staging is essential.

Staging goes up when buildings are being repaired as well. Around these parts many of the buildings are clad in sandstone. They need sandblasting. What happens before sandblasting? The staging goes up.

Every time I see a building getting sandblasting work done, I wonder if Christo and Jean Claude have a show on in town. This hasn’t been the case yet. There is something wonderful though with having a sandblasted building mistaken for your work.

“For me esthetics is everything involved in the process — the workers, the politics, the negotiations, the construction difficulty, the dealings with hundreds of people,” he told The New York Times in 1972. “The whole process becomes an esthetic — that’s what I’m interested in, discovering the process. I put myself in dialogue with other people.”1

For Christo and Jean Claude, each stage of the process is an esthetic. The art is everywhere in dialogue with others.

Stage is a neat word. Its origins go back centuries. In the 13th century, a stage was considered the story of a building. By the 14 century it was considered a raised platform for public display and the platform beneath the gallows.

So the building you’re in? That’s a stage. It’s a place to stand. It’s a place that supports you. Having a nice roof over your head? That likely feels very supportive to your health. The period of time your home exists within? That’s a stage too.

Sense of "period of development or time in life" first recorded early 14c., probably from Middle English sense of "degree or step on the 'ladder' of virtue, 'wheel' of fortune, etc.," in parable illustrations and morality plays. Meaning "a step in sequence, a stage of a journey" is late 14c.2

Whether you’re experiencing a teenage fad, exploring a wrapped building, nesting in the home you grew up in or crossing the platform on a gallows, we’re all merely passing through. All the world’s a stage. If that’s the case, all the world might also be staging, a place to stand and be seen. All the world is staging. All the world? Well, I guess it just depends on ‘how’ you define ‘support’.

We stage things all the time. ‘Staged’ events get a bad rap. There’s a sense that if it something was created with a bunch of artifice around, it’s less valuable. The artifice makes things inauthentic.

But this inauthentic extra stuff? That’s the support needed to connect. We create staging to support ourselves every day. Whether we’re attempting to get through the next ‘stage’ of life or we’re constructing an artifice we hope is supportive with what we want to do, we find staging everywhere.

We’re all working with staging all of the time. The beauty?

Like Christo, the beauty, surprise, absurdity and delight comes form the entire process.

What stages / staging do you use to support yourself?

How do you find it?

How does it come together?