Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Blog Warning
See those glyphs over the blog title? They're a representation for when the blog was written. Collectively we call them "the date." We all find dates important. Not only do we spend our teens searching for them, we also spend our adult lives watching them pass. We use dates to catalogue all that has gone before.
Well, in the pages to come, don't count the days between blogs and don't count the dates on the blogs; they mean nothing. There is no chronology. I have several blogs in several stages of completion. I'll complete them as I have time, but time has no meaning to them.
Thank you and read on. There will be more to read in no time.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Thanksgiving
“Are you going home for Thanksgiving?” That’s what the
manager asked me. She was
concerned. The night before Thanksgiving
is a time for giving, a time for caring.
She cared.
So I gave, “I’m good.
My fiancé and I are watching the Lions. Thanks for asking. What are you
doing?”
“Watching, the game. Go Lions!”
Everybody here watches the game. The police do random house
searches.
“Who’s in Whoville?
This will not do! Turn on the game. Turn it on quick! I know you’re kind
and your kind makes me quite sick!”
See? A heaping
plate of local support.
We also offer a steaming spoonful of detail deflection. It’s
why I didn’t answer the manager’s home question directly. I wasn’t going
anywhere. I was staying here. I deflected her question with a “go Lions!” That’s
what we nouveau Americans do well.
Thank God the Native Americans were perceptive.
“Would you like some turkey?”
“No, really we’re doing quite good, thanks.”
“I can see your ribs--.”
“We pilgrims are a lean lot.”
“—Through your heavy pilgrim garb.”
“It’s the latest style. And when did you natives learn the
word garb?”
“Since our words were written by a twenty-first century
blogger-dude. We’re not really
comfortable with it either. I’ll get the turkey.”
“If you must.”
Americans deflect our problems. It’s who we are. It’s American pride. We’re thankful for
it. It’s why we “occupy” cities instead of living with purpose. I had pride then
I moved to Detroit. My dream-queen
now works her dream job while I dream about mine.
“Would you like a job in retail? We have some.”
“No, really I’m quite good, thanks…”
So I’m working in a job I swore I’d never do again. Thanks,
God. Working on pride again? Ok, if you can find it, it’s yours…
The one thing retail has accomplished is it’s gotten me back
out in public. I talk with everyday people every day. Did you know that we’re undergoing an
economic crisis? That’s what everyday people have taught me.
“We’re undergoing economic crisis.”
“Huh, you learn something everyday.”
They’ve taught me other things as well. They’ve taught me
about Detroit, the city. If
there’s a symbol of American pride, I think Michigan’s thumb-based city is the
thumb to the American nose wiggling an assortment of pride fingers at the
world.
Detroit’s pride took a serious hit during the 80s when the
big three motor companies shut down the bulk of their manufacturing plants,
killing employment across the state of Michigan. The only one to walk away rich
from that deal was Michael Moore.
Since then, Moore’s images of poverty gutted Flint have
blended into news footage of Detroit’s Devil’s Night burnings and angry
denizens who’d sooner shoot you than look at you.
“We Detroitians are a lean lot.”
“—through your heavy winter garb.”
Bang!
“Now we’re a little leaner.”
It’s the outsider view of Detroit. Since I’ve been here,
I’ve seen that this Detroit is not the real Detroit. It’s a snow globe still
life. Shake it. Faux snow and ash swirls over the dirty landscape, changing
nothing. Look from the top, the
sides, California, It’s all the same. You have to step into Detroit to know the
real Detroit.
Why? It’s Detroit pride. It’s a people who say, “I don’t
care what you think. You’re not me. You don’t know me.” Detroit pride. It’s an
amazing thing. The people of the region have suffered for so long and have
found a way to move forward.
One way they move forward is their local sports.
Go Lions!
These people love their Pistons, Wings, Tigers, and Lions.
Yet the Lions were saddest metaphor for a city filled with pride. The Lions 19 game losing-streak, ending
in 2009, exemplified the image we all knew: An ashy decaying city, one shake
away from collapse.
This year that’s changed. This year, the Lions stand at the precipice. They’re playing
a game on Thanksgiving against the toughest opponents in the NFL, the Green Bay
Packers. Green Bay is the dread Pirate Roberts ready to crush the hearts and
devoir the souls of Detroit’s mighty Lions.
It’s retail, ready to crush Blogging Rob’s writing dreams.
It’s a bad economy crushing Detroit city’s pride, hope and
dreams.
See, when I moved here I stepped into the globe. I saw
something I hadn’t seen before. Detroit is a city on the rebound. The people of
Detroit have pride, and they have heart. They’ve been the butt of so many jokes
for over 30 years, but they don’t concentrate life’s prat-falls. They concentrate on the steps they take
moving forward.
Where forward is taking them includes this: The big 3 automakers
are bouncing back better than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. They’re even
hiring. Downtown Detroit looks
different from the one in your snow globe. It’s changing unused factories and
warehouses into a glittery waterfront district.
Nothing’s perfect. There are still homeless, houseless, and
jobless, and parts of town not for the weak or unarmed, but the local populace works
toward accomplishment, and not
stalling on what’s holding them back. Just like the Detroit Lions.
The Lions aren’t perfect either. Their pre-Thanksgiving
record was 7-3. They don’t play pretty.
Their star defenseman, Ndamukong Suh, is accused of playing like a thug.
The Lions are struggling scrappers trying to survive.
And that’s why I find myself rooting for the Lions--and
rooting for Detroit.
Both city and team still have a stigma, but they keep
trying.
And they keep getting beat. Thanksgiving Day the Green Bay
Packers did what everybody knew they would: They won—because that’s who they
are.
But come Black Friday it wasn’t the silent ash of defeat
sticking to everybody’s tongue. It
was the Detroit Whoville song of happy shoppers praising a tomorrow that would
bring a new game and another chance.
It’s part of our pride. Because if Detroit can turn their
record around, then the City can overcome their recession, America can recover
their economy, and I can get the hell out of retail.
“I’ll get the turkey.”
We have a lot to be thankful for, and Faith and action will
heap more blessings on our plate in the years to comea. Detroit seems to
understand that.
“Are you going home?”
Of course I’m going home.
I am home.
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