I Have Never Been to the Top of the Sears Tower

FILE - In this June 24, 2009, file photo Anna Kane, 5, of Alton, Ill. looks down from "The Ledge," at the Sears Tower in Chicago. The glass balcony suspended 1,353 feet (412 meters) in the air and jut out 4 feet (1.22 meters) from the Sears Tower's 103rd floor Skydeck, is one of the changes this year for the tallest building in the United State which will officially be renamed to Willis Tower, for the London-based Willis Group Holdings, on July 16, 2009. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)


I have never had the urge to go to the top of the Sears Tower. It always seemed like a "touristy" thing to do. But when I visited New York on a whim as an 18-year-old, the first thing I did was visit the Statue of Liberty. I guess living beneath the shadows of the giant building that seemed to me like a giant middle finger pointing to Pilsen took away any intrigue of what was then the world's tallest building.

Many enjoy going to the top and enjoying the view. More power to them. Just because I do not want to do something does not mean there is no value to it.


I would rather view nature than urban landscape. There is a unique beauty to viewing the tall structures off Lake Shore Drive but I really become mesmerized by sites like the one at Dead Horse Point near Moab, Utah.



I always felt as if I was a country boy lost in the city. I am madly in love with the mountain forests of Utah, yet I commit adultery on these forests with an equal passion for the deserts of southern Utah. There is a solitude and silence that one can actually hear. It is a deep spiritual experience for me.

Many who I have known from my late teen years in Pilsen have died from violence. Many have been imprisoned. I feel greatly blessed to have had escaped, and to have connected with the beauty of the land.