Traveling up Lake Shore Drive en route to work this evening I caught a glance east at a handful of boats beyond the harbor with sails set and full. Earlier this week I took Lauren out sailing (with a hired boat and captain, not a skill I have... yet) for a crispy morning cruise. I made breakfast sandwiches and mimosas. I laid on my back under the sail when the captain turned back toward shore, and I watched the boom swing above me from one wind-harnessing extreme to another.
The city was right there, always in view, but I was absent from it. I realized with an aquatic rush of delight that this brand of wilderness has been at hand constantly; that we urban dwellers buzz in astonishingly close proximity to a wild alterity that feeds on the same winds that daily brush my body. The winds course between buildings, chasing through avenues on their way to vastness outside of city precincts.
In the midst of the buzz on my way to work this evening I saw those boats and saw myself reciprocally through the boats-eye-view and felt the levity of a sudden, welcome insignificance.
