A Day in the Life of Chaos

Las Vegas is forever evolving.  I imagine the place as a kind of organism that is alive and constantly metastasizing into different forms.   It is not just metastasizing it is in a constant state of metamorphosis.  I almost think a new word should be invented to describe the condition, perhaps "metastasorphosis."   It is precisely this change that intrigues me so much.  I have often said that if I could change my way in life I would have been an urban planner.  There is something about the re-invention of design and function that fascinates me.  Very few urban planners begin with a blank slate, a canvas with which to completely adorn with their own image of perfection.  While this might seem idyllic, in truth I think it is a recipe for disaster.  Cities created with such an open canvas tend to be Stalinistic monolithic nightmares or organized chaos.  Brasilia was carved out of the jungle as a model capital and is instead an urban horror of concrete steel and glass that is

I think the true measure of a man or of a woman for that matter is what they do with the entirety of their life.  No snapshot in time is good enough.  Only looking back at what they did, how they gave, how they treated others is it truly possible to pass judgement. As sparks fly in American presidential politics I think it is important to look back at our past presidents within living memory and consider what kind of men they were.  I think if anything is a true measure of the person it occurs in the post presidential years.  These are the years when these men whom reached the pinnacle of their own egos and power have to find a new voice and a new role.  They have spent their lives climbing in office and suddenly they can go no further.  They reached the zenith of ambition. I am not ashamed in the least at my liberal leanings and perhaps the error of my entire premise is that I approach it from a liberal perspective.  Liberals tend to focus on the we not the me and on humanity as a