So what do you give as a Father’s Day gift to a guy who already has more than enough stuff? I remember my dad’s wife, Sonja, saying a few years back that the best gift my siblings and I could give my dad was our time. What a wise thing to say! And of course, with both my dad and Kathy’s dad each approaching their 80th birthday, it feels even more important to steer away from expensive bottles of after shave . . . and instead give the gift of time together.
So when it came time to figure out a Father’s Day gift for their dad, I am so glad that Kathy and Polly opted for a family excursion to Chicago – and it turned out to be an absolutely terrific day in every way. And to make it even more special and fun, Polly and Kathy flew their Aunt Linda up from St. Louis to join us. Stir our niece Lorelai into the mix and you have the makings of a spectacularly fun time.
You know it’s a great day when even the train ride down to Chicago is a blast – and it was even fun just walking around the Loop. And we did a HUGE amount of walking, but there is so much to see and enjoy in a city like Chicago- and to be enjoying it together is even better. One of our first big stops was Millennium Park, which Kathy and I have enjoyed many times before but which was a brand new experience for everyone else (except Mark.) The high point, of course, was when we walked around and underneath the famous “Bean,” an amazing metallic sculpture that’s officially titled “Cloud Gate”- but which most people call the Bean because it resembles a giant kidney bean. Anish Kapoor’s sculpture was supposed to cost $6 million . . . but the final price tag was a bewildering $23 million. That seems outrageously excessive until you stop to think about the millions of people who have derived great pleasure from viewing their crazy- looking reflections on its surface. And part of what makes it especially fun is that it’s completely low-tech. It’s not plugged in . . . there’s no computer interface . . . not even any moving parts, unless you count the delighted park visitors themselves, scampering around it and under it. We had terrific fun there- especially in the way that the Bean seems to bring out the little kid in anyone and everyone.
The heart and soul of the day – and of our father’s day gift – was an amazing architectural tour of Chicago aboard a lovely boat called the First Lady. There are a number of different architectural tours you can take, but Kathy’s cousin Linda (Marler) emphatically recommended this one, which is under the auspices of the Chicago Architecture Foundation – and this did indeed turn out to be the cadillac of architecture tours. I don’t remember our tour guide’s name, but he was brilliant- giving a flowing commentary without once peeking at any notes. And as a former English teacher, he was articulate and also had a real knack for knowing just how technical to get without crossing a line and delivering a lecture that would be more at home in a university lecture hall. Of course, with more than fifty different buildings discussed through the course of the tour, there isn’t too much in the way of specifics that I can remember. But his main theme, which he drove home to us again and again, is that there is incredible beauty to be seen in many of Chicago’s skyscrapers. . . and that when we are walking around the Loop, we really need to remember to look up from time to time and take a moment to appreciate the spectacular structures looming above our heads. And although Chicago’s skyline might seem at a glance to be a crazy jumble of buildings, in fact there are all sorts of cases where buildings have been designed to reflect and work in concord with the buildings around it. . . but often in subtle ways that we might completely take for granted. But thanks to this tour, I think we’ll be a little less oblivious about such things. And by the way, on a tour like this one also learns a huge amount of information about Chicago itself and its fascinating history- including its astonishingly rapid growth, nearly unprecedented in the history of the world. It’s an incredible city and I loved getting to learn a lot about it that I didn’t know before.
Monday was also the day I experienced Jamba Juice for the first time- and now that I know how splendid their smoothies are, I will certainly make a point of visiting the Jamba Juice that’s now open for business in Carthage’s student union. It was also the day I saw the inside of an America Girl Store for the first time, and now I understand what all of the fuss is about. Monday was the day we all stood underneath the gorgeous Tiffany dome in the Chicago Cultural Center, which used to be the Public Library. I was in that building more times than I can count when it was a library, but I’m quite sure I never ever took the time to look up and see the dome in all its glory – until now, with all of the stacks gone. Monday was the first day that my niece Lorelai and I stood in front of the Lyric Opera House . . . me with a look of sheer delight on my face, and she looking like she’s just arrived at the dentist’s office. (We have this rather hilarious running gag going where I’m always prattling on about how wonderful opera is- promising that when she comes over to our house, we’ll be watching six hours worth of opera videos, etc.)
So what do all of these things have in common besides plain old fun? It’s the idea that when we are together, we tend to take each other into places we might not otherwise go – we tend to reveal beauty that we might not otherwise see and fully appreciate – we tend to experience fun and excitement that we might not otherwise enjoy. Sometimes it happens quite literally, like the moment when we were downtown and Polly happened to notice in the distance a couple of people walking down a fire escape very very far off the ground. . . maybe 20 stories up. None of the rest of us would have probably seen that at all if Polly hadn’t caught notice of it first. Or in a case of looking down rather than up, I caught sight of a beautiful King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and asked its owner if we could say hi to it. Thanks to my rather forward request, we ended up having this truly delightful encounter with this gorgeous and sweet dog, right in the heart of downtown Chicago. Or it might be the way that a story from Kathy’s dad about his brother and Navy Pier many years ago gets us looking back.
I think a lot of us live our lives with our eyes fixed firmly in front of us, focused on the “prize,” whatever that might mean for us. Or our gaze wanders here, there and everywhere but maybe ends up missing important things right in front of us. I am so grateful for the people in my life that help me to see all kinds of amazing things around me that I might otherwise miss- or give me a gentle nudge towards trying things that I might otherwise steer around. I’m especially glad to get that from Kathy’s family – and from my own as well, to say nothing of the friends in my life who also play such a vital role in lifting me out of the frantic rush to the next thing in my life . . . reminding me to Look Up. You never can tell what wonderful thing you might see next.
pictured above: Our group looks at its reflection in the Millennium Park “Bean.” left to right: me, Bob, Lorelai, Polly, Mark, Kathy, and Linda.