Where would YOU recommend someone go, "to see what life is really about"?

Perhaps I meant that your local Walmart, is a reflection of your environment. Not your church.

No matter what place I can think of “realer” than Walmart they all have something in common.
People from ALL walks of life intersect there.
The best, down to worst people are represented.

I could say that if you want to learn about life, take a walk through Southside Chicago.
Or Seattle. But you cannot learn from dying.

I see life as in reality being extremely chaotic, and dangerous. I think people like to pretend it isn’t.

When you see a pregnant 20 year old girl, pushing a shopping cart crawling with 4 screaming kids, and with no bra and hair rollers, with a look of death on her face, it’s educational.

The parking lots have RVs and Big rigs, and some are very dangerous.

Make no mistake. I guarantee you that murderers have followed people home from Walmart.

If not Walmart…

Let’s see Wafflehouse Steve Harvey!

a hospital

^^^
Hospital

So much goes on inside those places, every kind of humanity collides, and most everyone starts and/or ends in one. They are places of hopes and fears, miracles and cold realities, mundane routine, extraordinary circumstances, and emergent situations, where even the most sheltered of us encounter the many kinds of people our lives have been built to avoid. Nature battles technology – prejudice battles compassion – capitalism battles collectivism. They are contradictions too: places of nutritionally balanced meals that taste like crap, halls of healing you’re at high risk of infection within, where some get better, some get worse, some are saved, some are killed. Some are exulted and enriched therein, some are exploited and scapegoated, some work in HR, some are heroically competent, some are dangerously incompetent, and there’s even the occasional serial killer lurking.

Specific to where I live, I’d say spend a day on Tremont Street in Boston. Start at Mass General Hospital and Mass Eye & Ear. Just up the street is the Mass Health Museum. From there, head up past Boston City Hall Mall and then wander through Boston Common. At the intersection of Boylston Street, spend some time at one of our many homeless shelters and then into China Town. Finally, end in the Theater District, maybe the Wang or Schubert Theater.

You can walk the length in an hour or so, but if you linger, you’ll experience a wide swath of humanity from across age, ethnics, educational, and socio-economic divides — all surviving, some thriving, many struggling.

I agree with hospital, and maybe the Smithsonian where people can learn about what is important to a society.

I don’t really know what the expression means either but if I take at surface level, I might suggest spending a few hours at a big urban library. See what questions the reference librarians deal with, check out the families in the children’s room, look at the lines for free help with their tax filing in the meeting room, look at the unhoused people sheltering from the cold.

Any place they choose. It’s their own life so I couldn’t possibly tell them where to go find it. That is their job.

Speaking of Waffle House, when I was much younger a bunch of us went to see GWAR and if you know the band, you know what we all left looking like. Of course, we stopped at Waffle House after and the waitress looked at us like “should I be worried?” One of us picked up on it and said “we went to a concert where they throw stuff at you” She was still reluctant to refill our coffee… I guess, “go see GWAR” should be on that list.

@Blackwater_Park, FYI there’s a GWARbar and a memorial grave site for Dave Brockie in Richmond, VA, where the group was founded. (Never been to a show myself.)

I guess it depends on what you mean by “See what life is all about”. If you want to people watch, Walmart is good, a shopping mall is good, even the beach is good. If you want to see amazing things, I’d suggest a road trip. Travel around, see new places and new things that you’ve never seen before. Start with local attractions and move out from there. If you want to see things that will make you feel overwhelmed with how tiny you are, I’d suggest on top of a mountain at night, or maybe the rim of the Grand Canyon. If you want to forget all the stresses of the world and disconnect a bit, I’d suggest finding an Amish village and visiting that. We used to live near one and you could get a group together and go to dinner at one of the houses. They would cater a sit down dinner for a relatively large number of people (25 I think is what we had). It was all home made food and served family style. It was a wonderful way to see how the other half lives (there’s another one of those phrases!)

I would say Florida or similar environment. As someone that came from the bland and rainy pacific northwest, Florida was really nice and I actually felt at home.

My initial thought was “Walmart”. That is until @MrGrimm888 quoted Steve Harvey’s thoughts on “Waffle House”. I’m a people watcher & I find BOTH the W’s to be a great place to observe & learn. Mostly learn how NOT to act!!! My favorite waitress at Waffle House always said after a particularly rowdy/crazy customer that “Waffle House is the ONLY place that you can go & get the show for FREE!!!”

Now in my younger days I felt deeply that the BEST way to learn something was to experience it. My motto back then was “I’ll try anything once, twice if I liked it.” So most of what intrigued me, I tried. Many things I did only once. The things that I enjoyed I did a 2nd time to verify that the first wasn’t a fluke. I learned a LOT from everything that made it to 3 or more!!!

I also agree with a hospital.

I was in a Chongqing park yesterday where there is a bronze statue to the heroes of China’s “Long March”. Children, some quite young, were clambering all over the statues and getting their pictures taken. The scene amused me and I stopped for a while to watch. I imagined the stern resolute faces of the heroes turning to smiles could they have seen it.

@flutherother – did your handler write that for you? Spoiler, this post might be too NSFC, so check who’s looking in your windows. I would expect any soldier of the Long March to cry at the destruction of Chinese culture that his actions contributed to, and the loss of everything he stood for and believed in, and now to watch his sacrifice being used as a propaganda tool to brainwash the children into supporting the murderous, unaccountable totalitarian regime the undid them all. Tears.

@Smashley But that is history, these children belong to the future.

I was a fan of the show “60 Days In.”
When you are property of the American penitentiary system, that first night’s an awakening.

I was arrested right before I was 18, for being a teenager.
I was taken to jail, spent almost 3 days there.
It was very much a revelation, in many ways to me.

I even got into law enforcement.
Another eye opening position.

Went I started bouncing part-time, I was too close to the bar scene. It was a dangerous job, and as a person who controls the door, you end up networking like crazy.

I’ve bounced at over a dozen bars. I got to get to know many of the powerful people in the city. Who they hung put with.
The trouble they got into.
The names I had to remember, to do the job, made people have to develop a relationship with me.
I would see these local big wigs, all over the area. Some, actually big famous names. But mostly just wealthy people, or people of stature.
And of course, the drunken public. From super high end crowds, to bikers, drug dealers, gangs, military, all the way to small “urban” clubs, I got to see how the city worked.
It’s a tangled web, and I wouldn’t say “corrupt,” but it’s a “who ya know” city.

When I was active in my real job, I saw a lot of people’s lives. Too much. Like having to deal with domestic violence, was indescribably shitty.

My life keeps me in places that I feel are “real.” Walmart keeps it realer.

I would suggest going to help at a soup kitchen, where you will meet those who are having a rough time but also meet the most charitable people around.

And sit in on a couple of open AA meetings in a downtown area.

@flutherother – … double plus good!

I go camping or to my friend’s remote cabin. Four days in nature, away from responsibilities, computers, phones, and urban noise resets my mind and gives me peace that lasts beyond the trip.

And another vote for hospitals. A month ago I started a new job,
transporting patients around a large one (700 beds and growing). It is EXTREMELY satisfying and interesting. I wish I had started this decades ago. Despite their illnesses and injuries, the patients are 99.9% pleasant and gracious. It’s a privelage to serve them.