all things go

i fell in love again
all things go, all things go
drove to chicago
all things know, all things know

i’ve been to philadelphia. to bangor, maine. to atlanta, to orlando, to anaheim, california. to london, to nuremberg, to berlin. to taichung, taiwan. to taipei.

i had not been to chicago. oh, i’d been in chicago six times, arriving at o’hare en route to points elsewhere. but to chicago? actually in the midst of it, in the noise and bustle and smell of the city? i had not been.

but now i have.

i spent parts of three days in chicago this week on business. it’s huge.

big, beautiful, gritty, smelly. i see why some people love cities and why others hate them.

i felt very small, dwarfed by the skyscrapers that obscured the horizon and towered above the river and the streets.

i knew christopher nolan used the city for his batman movies, but i didn’t realize gotham was so undisguisedly chicago.

i had a hard time grasping that things were real, it was so wild and weird and wonderful.

when i was working and would look out the window of our hotel room, i had to concentrate on the construction workers in their bright yellow-green vests working across the street to remind myself that this was, indeed, reality, and all the things i was seeing were as real as all the things in kansas city.

i’m twenty-five, almost twenty-six. you’d think i’d have a firm grasp on reality by now. nope.

i don’t think i’d like to live in chicago, but i’d love to visit again.