Detroit Dreams

One of these days I'm going to forecast my trends instead of just spouting them to friends and relatives....Actually, I have some sort of dim memory that was supposed to be a major inspiration for this blog...but then, life got in the way....Well, never to late to hop on the train -- unless it's already left the station....

Quite a while back (months? a couple years?) I read an article in Harper's about Detroit. About how certain people were planting vegetables and other crops in the yards of abandoned houses and vacant lots within the city limits of Detroit. I loved that article. I showed it to those aforementioned family members and loved ones. Told them this I wanted to do too....I was fascinated....A beautiful notion: making things grow where otherwise there was only waste and blight....

More recently I read another article (Harper's? Time? New York Times?) about another "certain people" (the same people? do they know each other? working in concert?) who were buying houses cheap. Like for a coupla thousand dollars -- as in just over a couple hundred dollars -- and were fixing them up, green and nice, and selling them cheap to other like minded people. I think most of these people were artists and they were all moving close to each other. Forming a sort of urban, cold weather commune. And again, I showed the article to my loved ones. Threatened to buy a house there, as my own 'hood is completely unaffordable. Naturally no one thought I was serious. "Detroit?!" they asked. My kids knew I wouldn't leave good ol' Cali while they're still here...but still...it was mighty tempting. Even if I couldn't do it, it seemed like a great idea and I hoped others would jump on the bandwagon....

Then today I pick up the Oct. 5 Time magazine and find the cover article is all about Detroit. The editor's page is entitled "Assignment Detroit." Time has bought a house there -- and from the photo, a sweet looking home -- and the magazine will host various events throughout the year while they check on the health of Detroit. As they rightly surmise Detroit is a mirror of the nation...or as Mr. John Huey says, "we believe that Detroit right now is a great American story...."

I'm jazzed.
Let's keep a watch on poor, beleaguered Detroit. I'm rooting for it -- even if that means I won't be able to buy an affordable house there because the property values take a gigantic leap....
Look back to my blog and to time.com/detroit to see what's happening....My next fantasy is that Time magazine will invite me to their "D-Shack" for the benefit of my West Coast observations and ideas....It's always good to keep dreaming...so go to it Detroit!

Dad....Still Here....

Weeks have gone by, danced away, lazed away, drained away...gone, just the same, and I have not added anything to this blog of mine, which looks like it is becoming a yearly thing, certainly not daily....
I've thought about it....Opened the page. Left it sitting on my desktop. Had a vague idea of what I might say....But the page sat blank and unused.
This morning, it seems obvious, after I send an email to my brother and sisters. Everything looks clear. And it is okay....My mind has been preoccupied...and, actually, that's a lovely thing....

The email:
Dears,
I must admit, it is a lovely morning (especially because we had thick night fog, which is burning off, and keeping the heat wave reasonable). I sit here working on a transcript; it is boring but I am busy, engaged.
What I must admit, is that when my mind looks to what is there, in the back, in the front, in the parts I cover up with work, I am thinking of Dad....
It has been like this for me since Sunday -- well, probably actually for five weeks...well, probably actually, for the last several months!
I miss his presence on earth terribly.
I am not reconciled with the fact that he actually is gone.
I have had a few brief minutes here and there to reflect on what a tough year and a half it was....His initial throat problem (when I knew intuitively it was cancer and it was bad...), radiation, surgery, steady decline, though all the while, hoping that what the doctors assured was true....And all the while, Dad the same as always -- though, actually, changing in some subtle and some overt ways -- Dad, the same, not making it any easier to be close to him....
And anyway, the sun now is coming in the window where I work, and maybe it is Dad....Like he told me a few weeks before he died: he will be like Orion in the sky, I can't see him (without the aid of a very powerful telescope -- and, of course, he knew the exact magnification necessary), but he is there just the same....
So...I'm crying now but will try to dry my tears and return to work.
my love and good thoughts to you all,
KSJH