Jogging Through Juxtapositions
While navigating the “Magnificent Mile” of Chicagos Michigan Ave I crossed the extremes of wealth and poverty. While walked I strained my neck starring up at the handbags and jewelry with names and prices equally difficult for my mind to swallow. Shinny watches matched the shinny guns of their guards. The bullet proof panels were just as perfectly shined as the jewels they were installed to shield. A four story StarBucks, a boutique in its own right, labeled “StarBucks Reserve” towered over the street. The smell of coffee and the sound of calm violin could not mask the truth of this “Magnificent” street. In front of the Rolex watches and Luis Vuitton bags, in front of the inch thick glass, past the guards and their guns sat the inhabitants of this “Magnificent” road. As one man on the street asked for a dollar a store clerk inside asked for a down payment.
Turnbull’s article, “Handheld Time Machines” sites the importance of reflecting on the history of streets and their history. He writes of how he is disregarded and ignored as he explores the rich and often lost history of each road he explores. Turnbull statements to the tune of “I am disregarded” resinate with me as I walked the street of Michigan Ave. As I observed the unique designs of the Forth Presbyterian I thought of Turnbull’s adventure and attempted to imagine the structure in a different time, I try to ignore the Westin Hotels music, the numerous towers inhabiting the Churches background, and the four lanes in the foreground of my field of view. As I stand in aw I am nothing more than a road block to the pedestrians, my eyes are caught in my own Turnbull moment as a women bumps into me while wearing fur lined boots striped leather boots. Staring at the street of Michigan Ave and its’ buildings the occupants regard me as nothing more than a filler of their space. Once the action of being disregarded is known Turnbulls’ motif of being rings truer and truer. (189 words)
