Right Around the Corner

"Baby don't give up. Cause we're the kind of folks who will always live right around the corner from something big."

This is a line from Derek Webb's song "I Hate Everything (But You)" on his "Mockingbird" cd. There are many ways to interpret this line, and I have a few interpretations of my own.

When I hear that line I think of my kids in my neighborhood and at Breakthrough. In my mind I picture the top of the Sears Tower, the part I can see from my neighborhood. It's kind of like East Garfield Park is right around the corner from something big- that huge structure.

That tall and grand building represents more to me than just height. It represents the economic center of Chicago. I beleive that so many of my kids will go on to do great things.

But I wonder, how discouraging is it to look up and see the top of that tower and then look eye level across the street and see a vacant lot? Do these kids feel that they will always be right around the corner from something big but never attain it in their own lives? I beleive they can attain much more than some of them seem to think, but they have to beleive it too.

I wonder, exactly what is it like to feel you will "always live right around the corner from something big?"