rlando, Florida a city of fantasy, dreams and super discounts. I've been coming here since my earliest childhood memories, after all it is the site of Disney World. This trip is was different. This trip I armed with adulthood and my cameras. It wasn't the Orlando of my early childhood memories. Orlando had become a surreal landscape of 99 cent bargains, $6.99 buffets, and boundless kitch. As I wandered down International Drive and the replica of Old Town's Main Street, I had become overwhelmed with fear. Was this the culture that America gave to the world : endless junk, catchy phases on t-shirts and license plates ?

As I continued my early Sunday stroll passing tourists, hearing languages from all over the globe, deep thoughts swirled up from my soul. Even here in the heart of this modern day Babylon there must be good. The love, the positive energy just had to be here. I had to knock over the facade of kitch to discover the answer to why do people from planet all come here? Then I saw it, the attraction is love. Wanting to be with your family forming those bonds , and memories. This was why I had come here with my folks back in the day. Love that is so intense that all else melts away. All the worries and drained into the gutter, and all we are left with is love.

It was there, I was so blinded by the trinkets I couldn't see it, but it was felt in my soul. I then understood why Orlando seemed so different to me. Orlando hadn't changed, I had. Love nourishes the soul, with out it we would shrivel up into a ball in a dark corner. Look for that limitless joy as the father that looks into the eyes of his son and says with his heart, "You are safe, and I love you."

Jacob Schere
January 2007

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