Sadness in Sin City

If you look long enough at anything you'll sooner or later find a sad element. Whether the subject be fictional, non-fictional or biographical, sufficient examination will always yield the truism that part of the human condition is sadness. However, when the object of your research is Las Vegas, you don't need to look very long at all to find that element. For one thing, you're continually surrounded by people who foolishly believe that gambling is a means of increasing their income instead of just another form of entertainment. People who would never expect an evening on the town - complete with dinner and a show - to put money in their wallet will, for some reason, lay their paycheck down on a card table in hopes of striking it rich.

I became aware of another thought-provoking, and potentially sad, possibility during a recent visit to Vegas. In between sessions on a video poker machine, I had to visit the little gambler's room. (Okay, I'm being too cute here. I had to use the rest room). Standing there at a urinal, I noticed a Filipino custodian, walking down the row of porcelain receptacles, retrieving soggy cigarette butts and scrubbing away with a brush. Now, my father was a custodian for a good part of his life and I personally have custodial experience. But, both my father and I had jobs that included cleaning tasks outside the rest room. We at least got to spend part of our shifts vacuuming office floors and sweeping hallways. This man's entire working world lay within the confines of that casino bathroom. I thought at the time, what a sad existence that must be, spending your working life cleaning up other people's excretions.

Now, I recognize that the cleaning man may not have been sad at all. I've learned that a great deal of life enjoyment is a matter of attitude and serotonin. And I realize that in comparison to the improverished life he and his family may have left behind in the Philippines, this job might not be bad at all. But still, I couldn't help but think that if indeed America is moving away from a manufacturing-based economy, bypassing an information-based economy, and heading towards a service-based economy, then I've seen the future and it sucks.

If you leave the casino (and the restrooms) and walk the streets, you'll quickly see that the creative architecture and expansive neon up above overshadow an often grimy world down below. There are traffic jams and car accidents on the streets; there are hustlers and panhandlers on the sidewalks - all elements found in any major city, but writ large by the exploitative nature of Las Vegas.

Vegas lets people behave in ways they never would back home. That's part of its draw and charm. But it seems to have an especially strange effect on some young women. It inflames their desire to exhibit themselves. They parade around in dresses cut low enough to show more areola than discretion and short enough to show their Brazilian wax job. I'm not talking about pole dancers, cocktail waitresses and prostitutes - their selection of dress makes perfect sense. They're showing their bodies for money. The more skin on display, the higher their tips. But I'm talking about the "civilians," young women who leave their offices and college classrooms, travel to Vegas and immediately walk the streets and visit the lounges in costumes that would look at home on a Frederick's of Hollywood manikin. On top of it all, they travel those sidewalks in stiletto heels. I would think that adds an element of actual pain to the journey. It's arch straining and back breaking enough to walk the miles between casinos in running shoes.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad those women are out there. They're beautiful to look at. But, I wonder about their motivation. They're not out to actually get laid. Then their dress and behavior would, like those of the strippers, make perfect sense. Instead, they're aiming to feel sexy without having sex. They're actually competing against their scantily-clad sisters and they're keeping score by seeing how many men they can frustrate and how many free drinks they can con out of those men.

I'm not exactly sure what this all means, but I don't believe that it's terribly healthy. And I can't help but believe that there's a sad element to the girls' behavior.