Just how smooth are they?

For the 2008 presidential elections the Republicans and the Democrats should just dispense with all that primary election nonsense and simply go ahead and run Mitt Romney and John Edwards against each other. The American voter has always preferred the superficial to the substantive so let these two political Ken dolls have at it.

Just like the Cubs

Next year. Just like the Cubs and their World Series quest, the things I meant to do this year, I'll do them next year. Like run the Chicago Marathon and do the stair climb at the Sears Tower. I had thought I might do them this year, as those events would be an awfully darn good incentive to get in shape, but I didn't get in shape, I'm not running any marathons, I'm not climbing 104 stories worth of stairs. Next year. Maybe. Ok, I really don't have any great desire to run a marathon. I get tired driving a car for 26 miles, much less running that far. But the stair climb? Possibly. Next year.

And possibly next year I'll do the annual 16,726 Yard Run, which benefits the Walter Payton Cancer Fund. It's only nine miles. Only? I get winded running nine feet. My shins begin to hurt after about a mile and it's a couple of days before they feel better. But in addition to the 16,726 Yard Run there is also a 5k run/walk. I could do that. It's for a good cause and the event is held in Arlington Heights, not far from my home. Yep, I'll do the 5k. Next year. Maybe.

Let the tide in and set me free

I'm 43 today.

Leaf me alone.

It really should be green

In the days after September 11, 2001, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert wrote a column with his thoughts on what should eventually become of the World Trade Center site. His idea was to make it green. If I remember correctly he wanted the site to be a field of grass with no memorial statues or anything, not even signage. No signage would be needed because it's most likely everyone will always remember what happened. It would just be a peaceful field of green.

Fields of green don't bring in money though and that's one of the reasons buildings are going up where the World Trade Center once stood. That's not the only reason, at least I hope not. I believe America has an indomitable spirit and rebuilding on the WTC site is an in-your-face response to those who would prefer us defeated and destroyed. That spirit is what I love about this country. Knock us down and we'll get back up and spit in your eye.

We cannot forget though, that the WTC grounds are the final resting place still for so many. There will always be some remains of the murdered at the site. All the remains most likely will never be found. They are dug up regularly as the new construction takes place. Where the towers stood should be hallowed, consecrated ground, not a place with yet another additon to the Manhattan skyline.

The World Trade Center site should be a park. It should be a place where people can gather to hope and pray for a better world, and then go forth and create that world. It should be a place where we remember those who died. It should be a place where we also remember that there are people in the world who want to murder us, every last one of us, for no other reason than the fact that we are not exactly like them. We can't forget these violent people, even as we plan for peace and that's what the site ultimately should be, a place of peace. It should be green.

Rainy Days and Mondays

By 7:45 this evening darkness had fallen. It had fallen a good half hour ago. I sat on the couch inside our condo, looking through the balcony winder and watched small events of nature occur. Rain poured, evidenced by the numerous drops I could see land in puddles on the street below. The wind blew leaves from the tress and swirled them in the air. If they landed, I don't know, I couldn't see it happen. It was gloomy out. It looked as if there was a damp breeze that would chill your bones if you were out in it. It was one of those nights with an appearance that looked as if it could defy your sense of time and season. It could be April or early May or it could be now, September. Nights like this are a precursor to the nights of winter, a dead season, quiet bleak season.

Obviously, I'm not psychologically prepared for winter.

Summerfall breeze makes me feel finesad

Labor Day marks a traditional end to what people think of as summer and this, rather than mid-July or the dog days of August, is when I get the summertime blues. I get blue because it's all over. Summer vacations have been taken, temperatures begin to cool, the baseball season begins its ending and the football season begins its beginning. Now is the time of summerfall, not summer anymore, not quite fall.

I actually noticed signs of summerfall a week before Labor Day. The sun was still bright but I perceived a slight fade in the brightness. The air was still hot and humid but there was a coolness in the breeze, even on days when the temperature was in the 90s. And the leaves began to fall. Where these brown, dried leaves were coming from, I don't know. Leaves on the trees were still green so maybe these guys were in hiding since last year, waiting for the right moment to pounce and let everyone know the season of melancholy was near, if not quite here.

And autumn is definitely a melancholy season. Summer is dying or dead and the complete stillness of winter lies before us, lurking about in chill winds and errant snowflakes, snowflakes that drop through the skies individually here and there, harbingers of future white storms. We try to keep the heat of summer inside us, but by the end of November it's gone, baby. The sunlight becomes pale, a wan shadow of its summer self and the trees are bare and entering their dormancy until next spring arrives.

There are, however, joys to look forward to. Big Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas visits from Santa, walks in the forest preserves with a fresh blanket of snow on the ground and a winter sun making everything bright.

I guess there is joy to be found in every season. Don't even get me started on spring...