Decadence On Steroids

Day two in Vegas and my "Sensory Overload Meter" is solidly above the warning line. I say the following not in judgment, but how people can be here (or want to be here) day after day is beyond me. By and large, nature does not exist unless you count potted palm trees or practicing the act of procreation. And, as stated yesterday, nothing is subtle. Nor is any public space calm, quiet or devoid of blinking lights and synthetic sounds. In most settings, you would walk outside to get away from it all. But, here, that only makes it worse. Most buildings are actually over-designed, with too many striking features thoughtlessly thrown together only to come into conflict with each other. It is almost as if the architects, when designing for Vegas, try to incorporate everything they learned into one building.

Simply said, Vegas just tries to damn hard. It tries to hard to impress, entertain and stimulate. Perhaps they must do this in order to 'get through" to self absorbed, overly indulgent and excessively inebriated people? Or perhaps, because they do this, people become self absorbed, overly indulgent and excessively inebriated? Your head spins when you think of the amount of money spent here each and every hour of every day, especially in the light of the current financial woes globally. However, I guess I should not be surprised because, for five decades, this city has eloquently explained to people that, when they are here, they are geographically divorced from the morality and the laws and the responsibilities and the disciplines of the real world. If I have heard a drunken fool shout it once, I have heard it two dozen times in the last 24 hours...... "This is Vegas baby, what happens here, stays here."

But, I said I would not judge (and I lied). I need to remember that one man's taste preference for chocolate cupcake is another man's vanilla. So, with that notion in mind, I set out today to have lunch in a quiet space. I found a small cafe in a hotel. It was serene with no blinking lights, rather it had a soft red light glowing overhead and balanced white light on the floor around the perimeter of the space. Soft Italian music played in the background. And it served a simple menu: appropriately sized sandwiches, splendid espresso and well made cupcakes and gelato. Without judgement , I ordered the vanilla.