People are nice by nature; anger is a response, not a default.

observation — attributed to Deborah Szekely

Szekely's operating belief, after running Rancho la Puerta for nearly a century, is that niceness is a normal state of affairs. Anger comes when people have been frustrated or mistreated. Nobody is born angry. The framing shapes the retreat's design. If anger is a response to environment, the design challenge is to build an environment that does not produce it. Few fences. Few rules. Sun, air, mountains, exercise, time. The hypothesis is that people who arrive armored will shed the armor in conditions designed for that shedding. The hypothesis has been empirically tested across decades of guests, most of whom return.

For retreat designers, hospitality operators, and any organization whose value depends on guests being at ease. The observation is most useful as a frame against design instincts that produce more rules in response to occasional misbehavior.

human-nature, anger, retreat-design, philosophy