I don't walk, I stroll.

I had to do a lot of walking today and I kept noticing that everyone was speeding to wherever they had to get to without any thought about what was going on around them. Since I had nowhere urgent to get to, I strolled everywhere I went, observing everything going on.

We live in this wonderful, amazing city of Chicago, but we're too wrapped in our heads to pay attention to the beauty and wonder of what's out there. It's a shame.

I understand that some of this is the result of defending ourselves from unwelcome intrusions upon our daily existence, namely those that come in the form of crazy, scary people in rat-skin loincloths, but this is an inevitable occurrence that happens when you try to be present in the moment instead of somewhere else. The crazy thing is that these disturbances help you appreciate the sublime things you normally don't notice all the more.

There's no real point to this other than that sometimes it's worth the effort and risk to get the benefit of those instances of beauty.