Chicago Ironic

Madame:

Sounds like there’s been a lot of work and transition on your plate in what is the usually slower paced summer.  I have felt some of that too, although I’m not sure if some of it for me is just that internally I really, Really, REALLY need the whole summer  to be non-work and that native American experience I described last week, just applied in the summer instead of the winter. :)

My own son has headed off to college (with some moving help from dad), living away for the first time.  It’s a strange experience for him, but it will be good for him.  Although I have enjoyed the DPS movie a few times, I am embarrassed to say that I have not shown it to my children.  Thank you for the good prompt to do so, for it is extraordinarily good, and particularly poignant given recent events.

Ironically, I am in Chicago again so soon, but this time, it is business, and there will be little opportunity to experience much of the city, alas.  However, also ironically, I have the last installment of last month’s Chicago travel diary to share (even though I think we could fill up more than a few posts discussing Ferguson, etc.):

7/27/14

Task-master (me), let the younglings sleep while I explored the town a bit.  I ran into a guy who said he was homeless.  He showed me his veteran’s card.  Not sure if he was, and not sure whether this is a new common scam or an indication of how much we’ve let our veterans down and also seeing the second and third order effects of our disastrous recent wars, but I’d run into the same thing on the streets back home.  This guy didn’t look like he was doing all that well, and as I listened to him, I was hearing all the while in my head the two brothers.  What two brothers?  My father and my uncle.  My uncle, although a pretty solidly nice guy, would say that I, if I doled out get-by money to a panhandler,  was either agreeing to be ripped off, or giving drinking or other addiction money, or just being an enabler and preventing the proper decisions and proper avenues for help.  My father would tell me that there but for grace—unmerited favor—could go us all, and therefore it is not ours to decide on whether it is legitimate or not, or whether  it is best for the person or not, but on the persons themselves and their spirits to work out. 

My father still, 10 years after his departure from this mortal existence, runs strong in me.  I gave the man a little money.  We talked for a little bit, and then he looked like he was needing to talk to/solicit some folks that were obviously walking to church.  As I walked down the street, I started to think about the structural homeless, the categories where most homeless fall under (veterans, mentally ill no longer institutionalized, substance addicts, and the displaced—lost jobs, divorced, etc.), and how we as a society now accept it as an “unavoidable background feature” where once it wasn’t all that acceptable, even just 30 years ago. 

Not sure if I was affected by the above or not, but I stumbled upon a church that looked interesting, so I stopped in and did a little revering.

I came back to check out of the B&B and the four were ready. We drove to a lighthouse, but it wasn’t open yet, although I was intrigued by the engraved marker and what that meant about that lighthouse/site unless the POTUS says otherwise!

We then met an old friend of mine who lives in Chicago (and his wife) for lunch.  It was good to catch up.  My daughter was much engrossed with the wife, because the wife travels regularly to China on business, and my daughter, who is fascinated by many things, has China as one of the top things on her list. 

It turned out to be a long lunch.  When we finally took pictures and said our goodbyes, I knew it was going to mean getting in very late (early in the morning).  It was worth it though to see him; it had been too long.   Before life scattered us, we had been very close buddies.

Did I mention that relationships were high on the list of matters that many native Americans got to invest in and renew over those three months every year?