If only the city were so creative...

It is a beautiful day in Chicago right now. The sun is out and it is actually producing warmth for the first time in weeks. My iGoogle homepage tells me it is 68 degrees out. All in all, simply wonderful.

I decided to celebrate this wonderfullness by spending the second half of my lunch hour down at Millennium Park. On the North end of the park is a fountain, apparently in the Wrigley Square and Millennium Monument area (that's a mouthful of a title!) and that is where I found myself an empty bench and proceeded to finish my book in the much missed sunshine.

I ended up finishing the comic before my lunch was done so I spent the remainder of my time gazing idly around the park. I wasn't doing a hard-core people study, which I often love to do to occupy my time and brain, more just lazily cruising over the surroundings with my eyes. It was halfway through this cruise that I saw a family in front of me that grabbed my attention.

What I can only guess was a father figure was running around the empty fountain chasing two 5 year old looking girls who were giggling hysterically. The fountain turned off for the season became the perfect ring for the kids to run and run but never really get out of sight of the parental units. Like a human version of a hamster wheel. The low lying wall also provided excellent "wall-walking" for these kids and the varying heights helped with the dramatic feeling of the chase taking place. There was also the added bonus of being able to hide just outside/inside the ring (depending on where dad was) and jump up to surprise the other party. All in all these kids were having a great time.

As I watched them giggle in the way only a 5 year old who hasn't seen the world yet still can, I thought how great it was that this family had found a way to take one of the many expensive city adornments and put it to great use during an off season. I thought how much could we save as a city if we started paying attention to creating things that could be functional year round, if instead of filling my alley with constantly changing flower planters (shucks Daley, thems flowers sure is pretty out there in my smoking alley, thanks!) maybe put that money into our public transit system so we don't have to hike fares again. I can't speak for everyone but I personally could do without the 4 planters directly out back my building when I smoke if it meant a faster, cheaper, cleaner ride to work each day.

Moral of the story? Can I fix Chicago's monetary and political woes? Of course not. But I can say if you are reading this today and you live in Chicago, go outside! And if you live in Chicago and have small children now you have a new place to let them run rampant and smile if you ever find yourself downtown on a warm fall day.