EEEEEEK!
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| Would you step out on this to gaze down at the street 1300 feet below your feet? |
Picture it: You are on vacation and you go to this destination, the former world's tallest building, and as you step out onto the glass ledge, you hear a cracking sound. While you may accept that it was the protective coating and your life was never in danger, I am not sure that one's newly discovered fear of heights would be assuaged by the phrase "that's because we designed it this way." Just saying.
Of course, as you will note above, while I may accept the Ledge (though I have yet to experience it myself--come visit, we can do it together), I am still holding out on the name of the building. Of course, I imagine at some point that day will come and when it does, I won't even be aware it has happened. I know this because there was a time when I called the tall white skyscraper The Standard Oil building and I took the Howard-Jackson Park-Englewood train to school. I can't tell you when I started saying the Aon Center and the Red Line. Change often happens without our noticing. However, while we may not be able to pinpoint the exact moment the shift takes effect, we can be made aware that change is underway, as I am now. At this moment, I feel it is a conscious choice to hold out and use the original name, to use the name that comes up in my head when I see the building standing there in front of me as I drive Julian to school every morning, but I can feel it changing, can imagine a time when for expediency's sake, I will shift to the new one and then it is only a matter of time before my brain follows suit. Then again, maybe that will never happen. After all, just because I now think Red Line doesn't mean I have stopped thinking Marshall Field's.
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