I’d sit on the train in the morning and as the buildings grew bigger so did my daydreams. The first part of my career those dreams took the el train into the city. Daydreams of wearing a Rolex earned by trading 1000 lots in the bond pit. Daydreams of an apartment in the Hancock.
Later I took my daydreams to work on the Metra. The daydreams seemed few and far between as life’s reality grew stronger with age. Daydreams feed off of hope. When you are younger you have an overflow of hope, but growing older uses the hope away.
I often post pictures of the CTA because they remind me of the hope of my youth. Every year I take the CTA Christmas train with the ShepKids because I want them to be hopeful. They need all the daydreaming the Lake Street el train can offer.
I don’t hope anymore and I rarely daydream. I think that all started to fade when airplanes flew into buildings on a Tuesday morning. It grew strength when my trading floor lost volume and my colleagues started disappearing. The final straw was the foolish mistake of marriage and that broken promise.
Right now I’m watching the full moon grow a shadow across its face. The shadows are fading upon my western window as the moon slowly loses its full glow.
In a few hours I’m going to lean over the window next to my partners desk and watch the sunrise across Chicagoland.
I mentioned up above that my days of hope and daydreaming have vanished. I don’t rely on them anymore. They are worthless to me because they’ve been replaced.
Growing older has made me appreciate where the sun and the moon are everyday of my life. Clouds might get in the way every once in a while, but I still know where the sunlight and the moonlight should be.
Tuesday is Election Day and the hope and promise that today may offer to some… does not offer the same for me. Hope left the building with Nixon many years ago.
The Nixon administration and the Shepley marriage never fulfilled the daydreams of hope.
Never stop daydreaming and hoping for a better tomorrow. If you do though, I will remind you what time the sun will rise and set on your day. Because that’s what Jumbos do…..
