Don't tread on me, say something

This blog post is going to be a little more illustrative. I feel like we haven't had a chance to really show how great living in Chicago is. I have not checked with Mrs. Bluth and so it is possible that some of these photos will be taken down later. BTW this is me again--not the usual Mrs. Bluth.

A welder by day and an exotic dancer by night, the young girl dreams of being a ballet dancer. Does the man she falls in love with, her boss, help or hinder her? Can she make it on her own or does she have to learn to accept help? I'm not sure, but the music was phenomenal.

We dressed ourselves up a little but and went out on the town to see Flashdance: The Musical. The theatre was much fancier than most of the people going and we were only about 10 rows from the stage. Things I learned: 1-Dancing is pain. 2-The 80's had decent hair, great music, and moderately sappy love stories.

We have also spent some time exploring the city. Because we enjoy living here so much, and even if we don't spend the majority of our lives here (which we still may, TBD), we still feel like we should be getting to know the city and familiarizing ourselves with the ins and outs. Chicago is gracious enough to receive us and we want to be gracious citizens.

We found:

Kayakers 

 A new friend (although it would have been a great shot without the photobomber)

A big building

 

Pizza

And a piece of art that makes clouds/mist

All right just a couple of quick thoughts and slogans. Back when I was an undergrad I would frequently walk to class by crossing 900 E and walking up a quarter mile of stairs. Inevitably I would come across a piece of grass or a lawn on my journey (alas, here in the city I rarely see grass--just concrete and steel). Sometimes the grass was not healthy. The groundskeepers would try and rope off the damaged grass and would put up little signs that read "Don't tread on me. I'm trying to grow." The fate of that patch of grass frequently depended on how much time I had until class started. If in a rush, the grass received a fresh couple of stomps.

The second slogan is the CTA slogan for preventing suspicious or bad stuff from happening on the trains or buses. Much of the CTA is plastered with signs that say "If you see something, say something." These signs have been up for as long as I have been in Chicago. One of them has a picture of an abandoned, Boston-foreshadowing backpack. A lot of misery can be prevented by just about anybody willing to do something.

These two slogans need to be held in tension when dealing with everybody we interact with. Do we ever stomp on somebody, not for the sake of stomping on them, but because it is more convenient/easier for us to do so? How many people have I unintentionally prevented from growing because I put myself first? Too many.

On the flip side, we sometimes do not do enough for those around us. We see a way that we could help and we don't. A few weeks ago we were awoken by a lady screaming in the street right next to our apartment building. At 3AM I looked out the window and could see a man grabbing and trying to pull a woman towards his car. She broke away and ran down the street towards a parked diesel. I called the police, I could have done and less and gone back to sleep. But I had seen something and knew I should say something. This story is far more dramatic then what I am really trying to explain. Yes, we should act when imminent physical danger is present. Most people would do the right thing in that situation. I'm not sure that we are usually making the correct decision in dealing with others.

In 42, which we watched the other night, Harrison Ford's character explains that the reason he wanted Jackie Robinson to succeed was because many years earlier he had not done the right thing to help one of his black teammates. He had never been mean or abusive to his teammate. But he had not done enough.

Are we doing enough to enable those around us? Or are we treading on them?

Don't tread on me, say something.