The heat is on, and the best way to combat it, if you are so inclined, is to find little pockets of coolness throughout the day. In the middle of one excruciating Chicago heatwave on the week that I first visited that fair city, I could only walk outside for limited stretches. Making my way along the Magnificent Mile and ducking into a place every few shops was how I made it through those unbearably hot days. Another way of doing that, and a very different way at that, is to dart from cool scene to cool scene – pool to air-conditioning to basement – in a literal sense, or to simply find places that look cool – such as the shaded nook of a secluded garden, where a clump of chartreuse Japanese spikenard illuminates the space, the shadows behind and beneath it lending the sought-after coolness.
The mind can overcome the matter, even when the matter is a scorching day. Setting and atmosphere can trigger tranquility. A fresh shade of the lightest green reminds of early spring, tricking the mind, bending the time, and believing it’s not quite as hot as it may actually be.
