renovations

I’m stopped at a red light on South Chicago Avenue in the rain on a Thursday morning.

Bored, I look to the left of me and see a large empty lot – about a quarter of a city block – surrounded by a raggedy old 8-foot chain-link fence.

The sagging gates are locked together with a rusty chain and lock that could be cut with a decent pair of bolt cutters. If there was anything of value to steal.

Maybe it’s a parking lot for a construction company.

Maybe something important used to be there.

But today the lock is guarding some empty chip bags and a half-hearted layer of gravel failing to keep the weeds at bay.

Then I look to my right.

An area of exactly the same size is enclosed by a shiny new black fence with a sturdy lock. No rust permitted.

The bright green grass is manicured and edged to keep it off the running track and equipment stored there. The track is spotless and ready for runners.

I think it’s a youth center or a high school.

Clearly lots of hours have been spent building and maintaining this half acre. It may be someone’s whole job.

I point it out to the teenager in the back seat.

“Look at those two lots,” I say. “They’re exactly the same size but look how different they are.”

“Hunh,” she says obligingly.

“Makes me think of kids,” I say. “They show up to school and you don’t know by looking at them which one is an empty lot on the inside and which one’s been cared for. They could be right next to each other but totally different on the inside.”

“Yeah,” she says, sort of thoughtfully.

Then turns up the music in her headphones because I’m talking too much.

Philosophizing on a weekday morning gets tedious when you’re 14.

I don’t mind.

She doesn’t realize she used to be the empty lot and that the renovations are well under way.

It’s slow work.

Pretty thankless, too.

But one day the people driving past will take a look in her spirit and see that somebody really spent a lot of time and effort filling up the empty space inside this one person.

Or they might not notice because the light turned green too soon. But that’s okay too.

She’ll know.