Tuesday night, I was sitting in a coffee shop, talking to a former Chicago cop about what it feels like to be shot.
Wednesday morning found me at a rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, asking a percussionist about a distinctive bass drum.
Say what you will about the city, it certainly runs the gamut, A to Z, and my job is to trot alongside, taking notes. Talk about lucky.
Though it can be a challenge — for me, anyway — to strike a balance. Is Chicago a horror show? A musical delight? Crime scenes or flower beds? Hard to decide. Focus on the downsides of city life, the bloodshed and poverty, and it feels an offense against the springtime. Summer doesn't officially begin for another three weeks, though now that we've checked off Memorial Day, it seems tantalizingly near, setting up its linen tents. June starts Saturday.
But escape into the pleasures of city life during these peak months, the nice restaurants, fascinating museums and one of the great orchestras in the world, and it seems a willful blindness. Children are burning to death in Gaza and I'm musing over pineapple salsa.
So it's a lose-lose? Whatever you think is wrong? That can't be right.
The answer, I believe, is to ply the range, the good and the bad. Absorb it all. Keep moving, looking around with an eye to the future. The beauty of things that haven't happened yet is we don't know how they'll transpire. The pivotal Chicago event this summer will be the Democratic National Convention, and until it actually occurs, there's always the hope it could, theoretically, work out fine. Like in 1996, with new iron railings everywhere, the West Side revitalized and everyone saying how the ghosts of 1968 are finally laid to rest.
Only they weren't laid to rest were they? They're still very much here, out of their graves and prowling the shadows. Yes, the convention could buff the gouges out of the city's battered reputation. It's possible. But you'd have to be an idiot to expect that. Not when all the ingredients for full-blown, 1968-level disaster are lined up on the counter, waiting to be mixed together. Every aggrieved person in the country heading to Chicago to raise their klaxon voices about a panoply of gut-twisting crises. A party nominating an octogenarian grandpa that even its stalwarts don't feel excited about. A timorous amateur in City Hall who couldn't plan a successful sack race.
But escape into the pleasures of city life during these peak months, the nice restaurants, fascinating museums and one of the great orchestras in the world, and it seems a willful blindness. Children are burning to death in Gaza and I'm musing over pineapple salsa.
So it's a lose-lose? Whatever you think is wrong? That can't be right.
The answer, I believe, is to ply the range, the good and the bad. Absorb it all. Keep moving, looking around with an eye to the future. The beauty of things that haven't happened yet is we don't know how they'll transpire. The pivotal Chicago event this summer will be the Democratic National Convention, and until it actually occurs, there's always the hope it could, theoretically, work out fine. Like in 1996, with new iron railings everywhere, the West Side revitalized and everyone saying how the ghosts of 1968 are finally laid to rest.
Only they weren't laid to rest were they? They're still very much here, out of their graves and prowling the shadows. Yes, the convention could buff the gouges out of the city's battered reputation. It's possible. But you'd have to be an idiot to expect that. Not when all the ingredients for full-blown, 1968-level disaster are lined up on the counter, waiting to be mixed together. Every aggrieved person in the country heading to Chicago to raise their klaxon voices about a panoply of gut-twisting crises. A party nominating an octogenarian grandpa that even its stalwarts don't feel excited about. A timorous amateur in City Hall who couldn't plan a successful sack race.
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The lead paragraph in the paper is missing on the blog.
ReplyDeleteJack
Well that was careless of me. Fixed now. Thanks for pointing it out.
DeleteI always wonder where lies the line of past, future, and present. When is it time to turn our back on the past, forget about the future, live in the now. What do we owe to us? what do we owe to our pasts? what do we owe to our future?
ReplyDeleteDoes it even matter?
It’s going to take a lot for me to stop loving and living in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteThere’s an insane amount of issues, many of them unique to the city.
Just ten years ago, the alluring city life of Chicago seemed like a fantasy coming from a small town. Making it here has been one of the biggest accomplishments of my life, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
I’m privileged in where I live in the city and my socioeconomic status, and I hate how segregated it is.
I have no intention of leaving the city in the near future, but I’m happy to fight for positive change. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world, and it deserves the love and adequate leadership.
June, July. and August...the months that are bought and paid for in December, January, and February. Enjoy them. Winter will be here again soon enough.
ReplyDeleteSo your son is having a seersucker wedding? I've heard those are all the rage among the Millennials and the Z's these days. And on a beach, yet? I've seen images of similar seersucker affairs. Very Gatsby.
Break out the croquet balls and the mallets, for some after-dinner entertainment and hoop-de-do.. My wife is an excellent player...she was known in some circles as the Wicket Witch of the Midwest.
Anon 9:37, I was hoping that some philosopher would step up to answer your queries about the past, present and future. My take is that human beings necessarily look to the past for lessons on dealing with the future by acting in the present. We do this usually with very little thought: the train or bus that came yesterday is very likely to show up tomorrow. Idiots of yesteryear will probably be idiots today and tomorrow. Right now, most Americans are thinking about what to do with Donald Trump and his deranged disciples. I will guess, based on past behavior, that he will lose the election and try to stir up as much trouble as he can...if we let him. I hope that smarter people than I are researching the past and cooking up plans for the future.
ReplyDeletejohn
Been wavering back and forth for a long time now...but after yesterday, I'm back to thinking he'll lose. Still, there will be hell to pay afterward, just like last time.
DeleteThe powers-that-be...who are not always smarter than you and me...do not have to go very far in researching the past and planning for the future. It's pretty obvious. They will know what to do when the orange poop hits the propeller. There are probably already contingency plans for deploying the National Guard...and for filling up the jails.