An Easter egg hunt in Dayton Ohio?
There is a name for it: Detroitification. The slow urban decay and decline that leaves once glorious buildings to crumble into a state beyond disrepair. What do we do with abandoned buildings? Neglected neighborhoods? Desolate cities? This is not rhetorical, I’m asking a real question. We don’t know the answer. Bloodhound Realty would like us all to move to Phoenix. Sorry Odysseus, that ain’t happening.
I love my little city. Somewhat dejected, and neglected, and confused as it is, it’s home. It’s got an ebb and flow here that I get. It’s got a history that ebbs and flows through my blood and drives my heart and focuses my mind. It’s part of me and Phoenix will never be part of me. Or San Diego. Or any other boom town.
If you bailed out of flyover country as soon as you were mobile, you won’t understand why I would choose to live here. Without sun half the year. With the possibility of snow for 4 months. With an uncertain future for the city. Why? Why not move to where the sun shines so often you only notice when it isn’t there? Or jobs are so plentiful you are shocked at the first round of layoffs. Boo hoo. Yer best bud has to make his own damn coffee? Man up, Sparky, things are tough all over.
Dayton is a few months from double digit unemployment. We don’t flinch at this news. We aren’t boo hooing into our Starbucks, we are rolling up our sleeves. We know what y’all don’t know- that things change and you can be happy and you can survive, and there’s life and love and joy and home is any damn place you call home.
If Detroitification is your darkest fear, if none of this makes any sense to you, I can’t help you. These are extraordinary and unprecedented times- exciting in their own right, and ripe with opportunities that haven’t been invented yet. I don’t have all the answers, but something here is happening, and I feel so fortunate to live in a city that needs me, rather than tolerates me. Be it ever so humble.
Have a blessed Easter.
Scott Cowan says:
Teri,
You just answered a question that I have been wondering for six years. “it’s home”
I moved back to Tacoma six years ago after leaving in 1980 saying I would never live here again. 23 years later I moved back here from Seattle and I have often wondered why? Why am I so happy here? why am I not missing Seattle? Why do I enjoy my city with the crime and the vacant building in a downtown core that has been in trouble since 1968? (the year the mall was built out of downtown) You answered that question for me with your post. It’s Home…
Thank you.
April 12, 2009 — 7:20 am
Brian Brady says:
“Man up, Sparky, things are tough all over.”
Classic Teri Lussier.
April 12, 2009 — 9:12 am
Jeff Brown says:
Happy Easter Teri.
April 12, 2009 — 12:12 pm
Don Reedy says:
Tero.
Had Easter dinner next door with neighbors, and had cherries jubilee.
When’s the last time I enjoyed climbing a cherry tree, playing with my brother and cousins, and listening to grandma gently but firmly say “pick um, don’t eat um?”
It was back home in Youngstown.
Teri, you speak even for those of us who no longer call home home, and it’s a wonderful gift on this wonderful day.
April 12, 2009 — 8:30 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Scott- Thank *you*.
Brian- Call ’em like I see ’em. Learned from the best. 😉
Jeff- Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
Don- It’s that rubber band effect- you can pull away, but something pulls you back. It’s home. 🙂
April 13, 2009 — 4:52 am
Madison homes for sale says:
Teri, Thanks for a beautifully written and inspirational Easter post! It’s good to be home…in my case after 22 years away. I appreciate where I’ve been but am happy to have my feet planted firmly on the ground back in my hometown. Hope you had a great Easter break! Jolenta
April 13, 2009 — 6:37 am
Maureen Francis says:
I don’t fear it. I live it. I am Detroit.
April 14, 2009 — 6:00 am
Teri Lussier says:
Hi Jolenta-
It’s nice to find home, isn’t it?
I never left Dayton, but it was only recently that I realized that even if I left, I’d never really leave.
April 14, 2009 — 6:56 am
Teri Lussier says:
Maureen-
>I don’t fear it. I live it. I am Detroit.
I’m speechless. In three short sentences you’ve summed up this experience so well. Just beautiful.
April 14, 2009 — 6:59 am
Sean Purcell says:
Dayton is a few months from double digit unemployment. We don’t flinch at this news. We aren’t boo hooing into our Starbucks, we are rolling up our sleeves. We know what y’all don’t know- that things change and you can be happy and you can survive, and there’s life and love and joy and home is any damn place you call home
If this is the measure than I can sing along with you Teri: we’re already into double digits. Of course, when things change here you can contemplate it on the beach… in February. 🙂
Hope your Easter was a happy one. Thanks for a really heartwarming read.
April 15, 2009 — 3:25 pm