Thorns or Roses. You Choose.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorns have roses.”

~ Alphonse Karr

Millions of kids have been raised on Sesame Street. My childhood was highly influenced by this fictitious and mysterious thoroughfare of puppet friends, children, and racially diverse adults. Grover (Muppet) and Gordon (adult) were my favorite characters. When I was a kid, I could sing every song, and I enjoyed just about every aspect of the show, but especially the short storytelling films they presented from time to time. One of these short films really spoke to me then, and I’ve thought of it often over the years. I don’t know the name of the short film, or if they even had assigned titles, but it presented a flower growing and flourishing on the side of a building through the concrete of the city. Something about that flower made me believe that I too could grow and flourish regardless of my situation. It made me feel good and gave me a great deal of hope, even at a young age.

Fast forward several decades. My family and I live in the suburbs of Chicagoland, and while my office was initially at the company’s headquarters, which is located in an adjacent suburb, several of us were informed one day that the company was opening an office downtown and that we were among those being transferred there on a permanent basis. Now, don’t get me wrong, downtown Chicago is quite amazing. It’s an exciting place to be, with the hustle and bustle of busy people going here and there, the beautiful and inspiring architecture, interesting river canals, and iconic destinations. However, this transfer came at quite an unplanned cost in both time and money (1.5-hour commute each way with a $15 train ride). In short, I wasn’t very happy about the mandatory transfer to the new downtown office.

I prefer to believe that happiness is a choice. I also believe in the effects of positive thinking. So, after a good deal of high-level grumbling and complaining, I decided the move downtown, with its cost, inconvenience, and general pain in my caboose (see what I did there?), was just something I’d have to not only survive but also one in which I would need to discover new beauty and growth. Much like that flower that prospered in the concrete jungle, I decided that I too could find a way to flourish in the city.

With that, every day that I went to the downtown office, I found something new and interesting to photograph with my phone; something I’d never seen or noticed. I was intentional about the experience. I looked for beauty or new-to-me shapes, colors, and happenings. I allowed the excitement of discovery to lead me on the train and the walk from Union Station to our office in the financial district. In the process, I made new friends, encountered new understandings, and saw many, many things I would have otherwise missed. I commuted downtown for about three years before the pandemic changed all our lives and ended my daily discoveries. In the choosing, I found light, insight, and learning and maybe became a slightly better me. Certainly, a happier me. It was kind of awesome.

In those three years, through the famous Chicago winters and the surprisingly sweaty summers, I took hundreds of pictures of another life that I would have missed entirely had I stayed grumpy about my forced downtown encampment. True, my glass was half empty—I lost a lot of time and spent a good amount of money on that commute—but I chose to experience it half full, and I have the memories to prove it. Following are just a handful of the photos I took. Beauty is all around. Happiness can be found. It’s not easy, but in the choosing, we win.