COSMIC WISDOM FOR UNDER $20

EVEN CARL MIGHT BLUSH

Carl Sandburg famously called Chicago the city of big shoulders. But starting every summer, Chicagoans start revealing a lot more than just their shoulders....!

With the warmer weather, people begin shedding some of the 9-to-5 persona, showing instead more of the after-hours person. Notice the lunchtime crowds around the river banks and lake shores. Fewer ties, more open collars, rolled up sleeves. Notice the weekend crowds jogging the parks and biking the trails. Fewer shirts, more open jackets, rolled up pants

Then with each new week, we'll be shedding still more. Shorter shorts, bikinier bikinis, shoeless feet. And while none of this is illegal or immoral, sometimes its downright illogical. I mean, rolls of tummy flab and clusters of body hair at which we would have blushed a month ago, now somehow we're willing to share with all the world. Even when the world isn't all that willing.

So here's the deal, summer-lovers. It's OK to travel lighter. Only give your fellow-travelers a break along the way.

THE WISDOM OF THE AGES FOR UNDER $20

You can travel to a mountaintop guru or spend time in a hillside monastery, but one of life's greatest wisdoms can more easily be found by simply playing a CD of one of Broadway's classic musicals. Here the concentration required of you is not on things above, just on those spectacular tenors and sopranos hitting the big notes in those smashing musical numbers.

They are uncredited on the album and certainly weren't featured in the theater's lobby photos. But listen again and it's clear how their soaring voices make those numbers work. Sustain the flow of the show.

Now here's the lesson.

The show is closed...the run is over...the cast has dispersed... these few nameless faceless voices from heaven are back on the streets auditioning for their next job. Not only the way of show business, it's the way of the world. From headliners to chorus liners, the marquee lights may blaze only once in a lifetime.

However, this doesn't have to be grieved over. It's just the way life is. Learning this is smart. Adjusting to this is wisdom. Remembering that you once made a difference, that's serenity.