The closeout list grows shorter each week this summer. Each item is difficult to complete, but seems necessary as time grows possibly shorter here. It all depends on how things go in August, I’ll make my best presentation, and if I’m lucky, I get awarded a fresh start. If not, well, then not.
This weeks item was returning my Dad’s ashes to Chicago.
This is a simple thing to do, takes a little cooperation from TSA, but then it was a simple task, keep the carry-on close by during flight, shuttles, hotel, and finally deliver to my sister.
Throughout the flight I was conscious Dad was there, I had conversations with him in my mind, talking about land features visible 30,000 feet below, about the city as we approached, he recapped his projects, Peter Hamm brewery, International Minerals in Glenview, project Deep Tunnel, Marina Towers, John Hancock, Sears Tower. It was a homecoming.
Before I delivered Dad’s ashes to Terri, I took a walking tour around downtown. Dad had taken me downtown once in college. I remember he’d circle the block while I jumped out and tried to take a photograph of Carsons, or the Auditorium, or the Stock Exchange Arch in front of the Art Institute.
The only one that was sad to revisit was the Stock Exchange Arch. The recent Renzo Piano addition to the Art Institute had been sited to cover most of the reflecting pool the arch used to stand in. Now it stood in a weedy (maybe they’re wildflowers) planter that doesn’t recognize the symmetry of the arch. It reminded me of a ruin, and of a change in a city’s values, choosing the new and shiny over the older and more substantial.
I’m feeling that way as the list shortens. I can see the time when I’ll be swept aside, maybe trotted out for some ceremonial occasions, but largely I’ll be considered irrelevant. Its not that I expect any different. I’m not a big ego I hope.
