Earth From Above

My sense of enormity was inspired last night as I saw the world from above. I saw the city from the 96th floor, atop the John Hancock building, staring out into the man made sea of buildings. This land of a million lights for miles and miles….all lighting up a million different universes make up Chicago.

You may remember a hundred years ago, there was a small fire that burned a few of the buildings down.

Since then, hundreds upon hundreds of buildings have gone up in their place. Awe inspiring is just not descriptive enough. When you think that men, like little ants, built up the city one stone, one brick, one floor, one building at a time…reaching skyward as the city spilled over and was then corralled by the lake. And still under construction!

All man made? Is that possible? There must have been some divine intervention, I mean just LOOK, is this not comparable to Niagara Falls, Muir Woods, or the Grand Canyon? The lights, towers, the silent mayhem that is going on below. People filling every space, every floor, every room…life teeming out of every concrete corner. The lights! There are so many, too many to count. Top to bottom, east to west, north to south….light upon light upon light. Can we have made this? So much energy in this place, rivaled only by the sun it seems.


I was battling an anxiety to get out of what I thought was so familiar…so Chicago, but going up and seeing for miles and just realizing that ‘downtown’ as it is generically called by suburbanites like me is divided into 20 distinct neighborhoods, just in “the loop” alone. The thought that just a couple buildings could EASILY house my entire suburb, made me just realize that there is so much city left to be discovered.

I have lived here my whole life and this is the first time I have been here. WHY HAVE I NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE?

Night Hancock

Sea Foam

Physics 112

I can remember back to my first college physics classes studying light and fluid dynamics and magnetism. I am so fascinated with the way thoses classes explained the world. A bird in flight, a traffic signal, the tide, a pool ball. I can still recall coming out of each class(feeling a bit nerdy)and being in awe of just having learned how this or that works while fitting so nicely into the principles of what i was learning.




I saw this glass while at a lecture recently. I noticed that it was half full:p and also noticed the reflection of the words on the screen transposed in the reflection of the water. The rays of light bouncing around in the glass and totally understanding why...i wish i could say the same for the lecture.....so naturally i swiped the glass so i could take some pictures. I look at this picture and i feel a sudden(and brief)insight into the world, just like my weekly freshman physics revelations.