“Versailles” (2009), by Jean-Francois Rauzier. (Waterhouse & Dodd Gallery, New York, London)

Here is a comment from my brother Tony. It is a remarkable insight about architecture that might otherwise be embedded (that is, hidden) in an exchange between him and me after my post on Aaron Betsky:

Dave, yes, cat’s out of the bag — it’s me. Beautiful afternoon here, couple a beers, and I’m publicly replying (ritualing) to your post! I guess all architecture is a mask, of sorts, by which governments and other wealthy entities present themselves to the world. They once disguised themselves in ideals (classical motifs, heroic statues, and wisdom etched in bas relief), but now they wear mirrors. The mirrors speak the lie “look, we are you, we are the people” while the ideals said “at least we are trying.”

Tony’s initial comment, with the subject line “Qualiafy Yourself,” is in my last post, which for readers on this blog now is but a click away. It was unsigned, and I only guessed it was Tony after I went back to it a second time to answer it and noticed that “qualify” had been misspelled. It was not misspelled, it was a sneaky way to reveal his identity to me only. He might not like this shout-out, but he deserves it! (By the way, the illustration above is one that he included on his post that I fell in love with and used with a column last year.)

Tony lives in Oregon, in the southwest corner of the state near the coastline recently named a national park and beautifully photographed by a National Parks Service employee whose name I will add to this post when I find out. He (the NPS worker) was featured on CBS Evening News last week. My brother is the author of the blog “Conscious Ritualing” that is on my list of Blogs I Follow. His blog is filled with remarkable insights.

By the way, my reply is … couldn’ta said it better myself, bro!