Back from Sin City USA

I've just returned from several days in Las Vegas, where I was attending a bankers' conference. Yes, you read that right - bankers in Las Vegas. Not just any bankers, but bankers who are so risk-averse that they won't make loans to small businesses without a government guarantee. God has a sense of humor.

Las Vegas has given up on its "family-friendly" advertising. You've heard the ads: "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."

It's a place where you see a lot of things that are best left to Vegas.

Not being a gambler or much of a drinker, particularly in Lent, I got up early every morning for Morning Prayer and a long walk up and down The Strip, since the fitness center at Faux-Italian Palazzo where I stayed charges $35 a day for the privilege of sweating there.

This is what I saw on my morning walks:

Baseball-style cards advertising escort services with soft-core porn shots of pretty young girls with little in the way of clothing on (somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, maybe somebody's mother)

Latino and Native American minimum wage workers picking up the cards and otherwise cleaning the entrance areas of the hotels and casinos

Prostitutes in tight clothing with tired faces heading for home (again, somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, maybe somebody's mother)

People gambling at the low-rent casinos that have doors open to the street - they look as if they really can't afford to gamble

A scattering of homeless people - the high numbers of security people seem to make the Strip area not particularly friendly to those poor souls

Other walkers and joggers

A freshly-washed beautifully pale blue sky.

Seems like a place where a little morning prayer could do some good. One can only hope.