Vegas!

I was in Las Vegas for three days last week – my first visit in ten years.  A lot was new, flashy mega-hotels and casinos that weren’t there in 2008 and more on the way, making it clear that this phenomenon we call Vegas has not yet reached its peak.

And that’s what interests me – the phenomenon of it all.  I’m not interested in gambling, so that part doesn’t call to me.  I’m not impressed by the glitz, so that doesn’t call to me.  There are many great restaurants, but I can get them in San Francisco, so they don’t call to me.  Yet, something does impress me and when I think about it I am intrigued.

I think it is the unlikely, unpredictable nature of it all, Las Vegas as a phenomenon that no one would have guessed was going to happen.  An undeveloped spot in the desert, not close to anyplace of note, that staked out a claim to be unique and began to offer people an alternative to their everyday lives.  Would it have happened without mob money and influence?  Who knows?

And it doesn’t really matter.

What we have now and from the beginning is that unique alternative, an escape, from the humdrum.  The allure transcends nationality, race, gender, and wealth.  The appeal is worldwide.  The allure is a human phenomenon.