Alanis Morissette "Ironic"

For weeks during the summer of 2002, I noticed a series of large chalk-drawn arrows on the sidewalk outside my Chicago apartment. These pink arrows first caught my attention during my morning walk to the Southport stop on the CTA Brown Line, but I didn't really take notice to where they led. As the summer wore on, I assumed someone went to great care to draw these chalk arrows because they never faded or washed away following rainstorms. Initially, I likened these arrows to envelopes you get in the mail that say "Important Information Enclosed" and the important information is a solicitation to change car insurance. At best, I assumed the mysterious arrows would merely lead to a yard sale that took place months earlier. One day that summer I would eventually devote some time to investigate where those pink arrows led.

Finally, one warm afternoon, my curiosity got the best of me and I followed the arrows from outside my apartment on Roscoe Street and continued west past Southport, Ashland, and finally to Paulina where the arrows now pointed north. Once again convinced I was headed to a non-existent yard sale, I continued on my quest. About two blocks later, the pink arrows ended at the corner of Addison and Paulina -- the final arrow pointed directly at St. Andrew's Catholic church. Suddenly, this adventure became bigger than I ever imagined.

For nearly two years prior to that summer, I regularly attended church at St. Andrew's. Growing up a Catholic, I attended mass with my parents and then continued solo as I ventured off to college and later moved to Chicago. My faith took a hit around that time as news of widespread sexual abuse and scandal within the church rocked the Catholic faithful. Similar to the the #MeToo movement, abuse victims came forward in droves for what seemed like months. One day, after an appeal for church parishioners to donate more money, my frustration boiled over and I never returned after that mass. Months later, there I was standing outside the church I once worshiped. Sometimes in life we feel like we need a sign from above to show us the way. Was this a sign? Was it fate that led me back (a la the pink arrows)? Was it just a case of irony? I don't have that answer....