diary / by Edward Mullany

Although, of course, the ruins one sees in the countryside, for example, were not always ruins, but at one time were complete and finished cities, or castles, or what-have-you. Or, anyway, were as complete and as finished as any architectural work can be. Completion is something of an illusion. There is always a brick whose mortar could use a little retouching, or a cobblestone that doesn’t quite fit, and that could have been replaced before the workers packed their tools and their equipment, and went away.