Movie in the Park

Last night, Scott, Tyler, Jen and I headed down to Grant Park to watch "On the Waterfront" on the big screen at Movies in the Park. There is something so magical about watching a movie on a massive screen when it's 75 blue-sky-turning-into-clear-night degrees outside, and you are sitting outside on the grass with thousands of other people. I find myself awed by the sheer beauty of it, and love sitting there while the buildings of the Chicago skyline hover over me protectively, with their sparking lights and winking antennae. I feel safe there, somehow, like those people sitting on the blankets around me are my new friends, even though we won't talk at all. There is a sense of camaraderie, of breaking bread together as we eat picnic dinners and socialize before the movie starts, and then with the collective sighs during the movie during the really good parts, or the smattering of applause when the famous line passes through the lips of Marlon Brando ("I could've been a contender!"), and then the applause when those infamous words, "The End", pop onto the screen. It's a unified moment. There are people in my life who can't imagine why I would want to live in a city the size of Chicago. They wonder how I can live in such a busy, impersonal place. There are moments, stuck in traffic on Lake Shore Drive, where I share their thoughts. But there are moments, like last night, when I am reminded again how much I love living in Chicago. And how a big city doesn't feel so big when you invest in it, and take part in what it has to offer. From the museums to the opera to the symphony to free summer movies in the park, it's a city just waiting to be appreciated. And I am proud to make such a fun, interesting city my home. Oh, and next week, the movie in the park is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", a true piece of Chicago movie nostalgia. Thousands of Chicagoans to appreciate it with me? I'll be there!