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.

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.