...what we leave behind...

Kate left a message asking if I was going to Fair St. Louis this weekend. (She felt it was my kind of adventure!) We made a plan to meet at the fair, and, when Saturday rolled around, we walked our way into Forest Park, along with countless others, to celebrate the 250th birthday of St. Louis.

The day was perfect for a fair! A warm sun accompanied by a cool breeze, the sky a bright blue with the perfect amount of marshmallow clouds. We tramped through the fair grounds, past an endless array of food vendors, with lines a block long, past the Mexican dancers, past the kids corner (where we saw Juggling Jeff) until we found a nice spot stage left to listen to the music and chat before the big fireworks display. I gazed around at the people sitting alongside me, and began to consider all our lives, how we are different, how we are the same.

The top picture shows the smiling faces of the fair goers back in 1914, celebrating the 150th birthday of St. Louis. When I saw this picture earlier this week, I was intrigued about the lives of all these people. I wondered how they celebrated this special event in their lives, how it was different or similar from how I was celebrating. Could they even imagine what life would look like for us now?

Underneath that, is a picture of the faces that graced art hill last night. I couldn't help but wonder what life will look like for the citizens of St. Louis in the next 100 years.

Many of my wild daydreams were aided by what I've seen on screen. Will space exploration and space tourism be a thing? Will the rich leave a broken earth behind and live out in space? Will we be riding hover boards or driving flying cars? Will clones be created for organ harvesting, and will we allow it? What will happen if/when the aliens arrive?

My thoughts were a muddled maze, each turn leading down a different rabbit hole. As the smoke from cigarettes, cigars, hookahs and joints wafted through the air, The Fray performed a moving, a cappella rendition of Just a Closer Walk with Thee. It was a beautiful and odd moment. Surrounded by these people, connected by our humanity and our citizenship, I wondered what beauty (or horror) we will leave behind.

Then today as I was cleaning out some computer folders, I found two old files that Andy and I had created on a whim in 2012, a list of 100 goals we had for our lives. It was an exercise we tried, typing up 100 life goals in 10 minutes. Some of the goals are utterly ridiculous. But there are some that really matter, and it was nice to be able to type, "Accomplished" with the date, next to a few.

It encouraged me as I seek out adventure and meaning and purpose.

Have you made a list of life goals? How close are you to completing them?