India's round about thoughts on the journey to Chicago :)

Significance.

Whether the word has what it describes is totally based on perspective. I think it does. To label something as significant is, in my opinion, is a significant act. It is an act of allowing something to have value to you and to become vulnerable to its meaning.

These are the things my mind drifts off to after a thirteen hour, not particularly comfortable, bus ride. They were thoughts that became an underlying theme throughout my trip. I don’t mean that in a “I spent my whole trip philosophizing” way, a lot of the time it was just the opposite. I found bored in moments that should have been gripping and completely enthralled by objects, people, and moments that would usually be completely looked over.

Specifically at the Chicago Institute of Art, I was surrounded by obviously highly praised works of art and I found myself…unimpressed. It sounds cocky, ignorant, shallow, to name a few, I know but I’m being honest. After visiting the Louvre this summer I swore my taste in art had finally come alive, I thought I had learned to appreciate what the world has labeled masterpieces. However, possibly due to the lack of sleep, I was for the most part belligerent to accepting any significance in the art. I was instead skeptical and critical.

On the other hand I found myself hanging on to our tour guides every word as she took us around the city. I soon felt like I could tangibly see the city’s vibe, the history, the significance of every corner. Maybe it was her passion, as she enthusiastically retold old tales of Chicago’s past, its plans, and its dreams. In those words the city came alive, a whole city, when the art would not.

I found a real joy in discovery of perspective throughout this process. I picture taking anything, a concept, an idea, an object, and putting it in a suspended glass sphere, or imagine someone under the Chicago Bean. In a lifetime one would never be able to look at it from every possible angle because they are infinite. My theory is that on every sphere there has to be a significant angle. My own personal challenge is to find it for everything I can.

I know I sound cliché and probably lofty and still definitely with room to grow but this was the significance Chicago held for me. The significance of significance J