Before I get into the topic I'd like to write about, I have an observation: My writing has declined. Not in quantity, but quality. The only excuse I can come up with for this is that I've not read as much as I'd like to recently, and I don't "think" too often, or too hard, lately. I had a professor years ago who started the class by telling us that "Good writing is good thinking." So, I'm not thinking like I once did, and I apologize for that.

Now, onto the topic I was thinking about today...

I went to a movie with a friend on Sunday and on the way to the theatre, I kept commenting on cool things I'd see. A mural here, some amazing architectural shadows and light there, a sculpture, old signage for hotels...Tucson is full of oddly beautiful things. But my friend, Will, he had never noticed. He's from Tucson.

I started to think about how every time I've gone on vacation, I've gone to where someone lives. Barcelona, Vicenza, Rome, Belize, Las Vegas, Montreal...all these places that seemed amazing and foreign to me are actually inhabited and frequented and, I'll assume, ignored, by the people who live there.

It was kind of a wake-up call to me to start remembering to always try and use "new eyes" wherever I go next, be it Kansas or Germany, to remember that wherever I go, there are things of beauty and things to inspire--just so long as I don't overlook them.