Chicago

I just got back from a 7 day business trip to Chicago. I got a chance to really get out and see the town and mingle with the locals. It was a great trip to gain perspective on life here in Kansas City.

First of all, I wish Kansas City wasn't so damn mediocre about sports. Everyone in Chicago, from the eldery to the kids, men and women were all wearing sports memorabilia. In Kansas City you are lucky to see people wear their stuff to a game let alone around the city.

Secondly, if you get bored in Chicago you are a loser. There is so much to do, so much to see. It's amazing what you can find walking two minutes in any direction. Food, clothes, art stores...anything and everything.

Lastly, it was great to see another sub-culture in America. I have never spent a lot of time in another US city. People's priorities in Chicago don't seem to be about moving out of the city, but moving into the city to be closer to the hustle and bustle. Here in KC everyone wants to move out to the quiet suburbs and own some land...till the land. It's all because it has been engrained in our minds from birth here in the midwest. The more remote your location here in the midwest, the better off you are it seems. While in Chicago, the closer you are to all the action the better off you are. How can two cities, only a few hundred miles away from each other be so different? How can 2 groups of similar people think so differently? How can we have such different life values in our hierarchy of self defined wants? It is where we grew up, who raised us and where they grew up. I found it very similar to how groups of people view religion. People growing up in the same areas tend to believe the same thing. There is always a dominant religion in any sub-culture. It permeates from generation to generation.

To sum up my post, not only do we want what those around us want, we also believe what those around us believe because they are around us. It is easy to fall in the trap and be one of the many that just goes with the flow. But to rise above our "instincts" and see life for what it is, that is the beginning of true "enlightenment".