Report from Chicagoland

We trekked to the Chicago area to attend a family (my second cousin-in-law) wedding and to visit long-time friends in the college town of Urbana. Lemme tell you, if there's gloom in nation, a pall on America's spirit, I didn't find it here. Folks are going about their business. They're making lives, working hard, and are hopeful for their kids and grandkids. They're glad for a light snow cover to make December feel like Christmas.

To be sure, we didn't initiate any conversations aobut politics with anyone outside of the decidedly liberal crowd at the taping of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!. We let people about work and families and the usual fare for people who'd just met.  The most serious social problem that I heard discussed came from one woman who told of neighborhood kids playing baseball in her driveway and denting her garage door.

[caption id="attachment_3029" align="alignleft" width="179" caption="A room with a view"][/caption]

The rehearsal dinner was in a restaurant in the back of a bowling alley. Several people at the lanes were wearing Bowling for Jesus shirts "because He died your pins."

It's true that Marshall Field's has been hollowed out and replaced by Macy's, that Dunkin' Donuts is bringing its alleged coffee to every street corner and gas station. There were few choices for breakfast near our hotel that's at the back of a large shopping mall that's in the middle of the carpet of suburbs. So we had our breakfast at IKEA and were very pleased. We ate lunch at the restaurant next to the Bass Pro Shop.

The people we spoke with were unfailingly polite as you'd expect. Their work was often in flux. The people getting married are in their mid-30s, late by the standards of previous generations, but common now. Housing prices are low, but credit is extremely tight, so attractive homes stay on the market for a long time. There weren't  a lot of little kids around, letting the four-year-old ring-bearer enjoy his day without competition.

We talked long enough to get beyond the introductory niceties. People didn't, of course, get to deep stories, but they did talk of their futures, what they liked and disliked about their jobs, what they did on weekends, and what they imagined for retirement. None of it was on hold until the 2012 election. None of it was about 99% or 1%. None of it was about class war or the war on Christmas or or who believed what. They talked about what they were doing and what they were gonna do.

If you read or watch or listen to the news, you might think that the fabric of the nation is irrecoverably split. The news spends too much time listening to itself.  Chicago may be divided, but it's between Cubs fans and White Sox fans, those who care or don't care that Theo Epstein might bring a World Series championship to Wrigley Field.