DSimmer.com

Giles and I returned from our vacation last night sun burnt and happy. It was a great time off (we've not really had an honest vacation since we've been married) and the time away helped me focus on some things. With that in mind, I present two lists (which will most likely be updated after this post is first published).

Summer ToDo List:

• July 11th: Be Invested into AMiA as Lay Pastor.
• July 11th: See the Queen of Soul.
• July 12th: Preach in Flint.
• Paperwork for fall semester seminary course.
• Massive amounts of paperwork for pastoral ministry.

Highlight of the week:

Getting to see my little sister celebrated at her high school graduation open house. It was an absolutely wonderful day overlooking one of the hundreds thousands billions of lakes and ponds throughout Michigan.

Giles was overwhelmed, as it was her first experience at a graduation open house in the Michigan style, but she made it through (mostly) unharmed.

Book(s) I’m reading: I wrapped up Kelsey Timmerman's Where Am I Wearing? while we were in Traverse City and am working through Simon Chan's Liturgical Theology. After next week, I'll compile a list of books to read/finish this summer as well as work out an academic list for the fall. That's the idea, anyway.

Music I’m digging: I'm not entirely sure what we listened to on the drive back and forth to Traverse City. There was a little T.I., a little Pink, and probably some Timberlake for effect. But mostly it was just NPR and me talking.

Something(s) that blew my mind: Morsels in Traverse City serves Intelligensia Coffee. For those who know my love of coffee, you know how important this fact is in my life. I had coffee from Morsels three times in 26 house. WIN.

Ministry update: Stuff is on hiatus while we're on vacation. Check back in early July.

Seminary/ordination update: As mentioned previously, I'm working on paperwork for the Bishop's office as well as my course opportunities for the fall. Not sure how this will pan out, so we'll leave it at that.

Looking forward to: Off to Atlanta on Thursday. WIN.

City Council President Pro-Tempore Conyers,

I respect your husband's dedication to the people of Southeast Michigan. Many of my neighbors in the region feel the same way, which is why his endorsement of you, his wife, in 2005 was taking with such merit.

I generally respect the politicians that represent me at every level, whether I agree with them or not. As a youth in northern Michigan, I respected and liked both of the U.S. Senators from Michigan, despite them being political polar opposites. They seemed like kind, genuine people who meant well, and that was enough to earn my respect.

When I moved to metro Detroit, I had heard the stories about the corruption and comical disorder in city politics. Living in Oakland County for three years, I heard all of the bias against the city of Detroit and its residents from those in the suburbs. I can understand how frustrating things like the Cobo Hall issue must be for you, a lifelong Detroit resident, who is forced to deal with the obvious anti-Detroit sentiment from someone like Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. Having seen first-hand how frustrating the political system can be, I cannot imaging how tough it must be to be in the midst of it on a daily basis.

Now I come to the real reason I write this letter. You see, all of the previous paragraph taken into consideration, it is still far past time for your political career to come to a close. Put simply, It's Time for You to Resign.

We've all heard about the time you called City Council President Ken Cockrel "Shrek" in the middle of a meeting. We saw your foolish attempts to defend yourself to a child:

We've heard about the alleged bar fights, the rumors of guns, of mocking other City Council members physical disabilities, and your intended fight for control of the City Council last month. All of which call your character and your ability to lead into question.

Then we heard this week that a federal indictment should be expected any day on corruption and bribery charges. Your response, as we should have anticipated, was neither coherent or respected: "If you're not praying for me, you're adding to the problem." (As an aside, Councilwoman Conyers, I'd encourage you to read the words of Laura Berman in the Detroit News while they are still available on line.) You are facing what could potentially be a long time in prison because of lying and taking bribes. This is the type of situation that a public servant should either: defend vigorously because of their innocence or resign immediately because of their guilt. Your arrogance toward the situation tells us that you don't care, a very similar public response given by a certain former mayor of Detroit.

Councilwoman Conyers, I believe you when you say "I love helping people; I love my city. It's all about helping people in the city of Detroit." I think that reflects the reason why you entered city politics in the first place. The difficulty is that leadership requires a certain character that is beyond reproach. And with the resume of bad behavior and mistakes you have made, it is past time for the city of Detroit to have you out of leadership.

I realize that the November elections are not far off, and you could take the easy route and leave it in the hands of the voters at that time. But as someone who, like you, loves my city, I'm asking you to take the route of difficulty and decency and officially withdraw from reelection. It will save our city and its people the heartache and humiliation that another political trial and scandal would cause. Please have pity on your constituents and do not make us go through it all over again. We can't afford it.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Citizen of Detroit

He did. It wasn't a lie at all. But as to how that qualified me to
operate a bulldozer, I will never know. But let's start from the
beginning.

Corktown

When I first began making plans for Corktown in the early autumn, I realized the lack of real community
space in the neighborhood. The city owns several parks on both sides of
I-75 that are really and truly fields that the city happens to mow twice a year. This leaves a giant void in the heart of a community that is trying to grow and thrive.

Community Initiative

Philip Cooley (the owner of Slows BBQ), along with some friends and local architects, set out to make a difference. They drew up plans, got permission from the city, and set out to renovate Roosevelt Park, a spacious place that lies directly in front of Michigan Central Station. I offered my Herculean might to help move dirt with a shovel. An hour later, Phil asked me if I had ever driven work equipment. "Sure," I said. "Yeah, like what," he followed up. Oops. What had I worked with? It's been a while since I worked construction. I can drive painting vans, manual transmisison orchard trucks, and farm tractors. Bingo, Farm Tractors! My reply? "Well, my dad grew up on a farm." That, my friends, was my epic reply. And then the keys to a bulldozer were placed into my caloused hands.

The Ending, So Far

Our story concludes on the patio of Slows, enjoying a dinner courtesy of the owner mentioned above. My hours of volunteer effort paid off, it seems, as he offered to let me drive the bulldozer on his next project as well. In the meantime, the park work will continue through this weekend, and while the heavy equipment has been returned to its rightful owners, there are plenty of rakes and shovels that need some laborers to assist them.

Help make this pretty this week.

After an epic battle with AT&T, we have internet at home here in Detroit. I updated the blog to reflect this new phase of our lives. Apologies if the picture and mini-bio seem slightly self-centered; the idea is to give people a better idea of who I am and what we're trying to do, and the mini-paragraph about New Way Corktown that used to be on the top of the site was no longer sufficient.

Ideally we'll be back to a regular bullet-point update cycle on Monday.

Until then, let's consider some exciting bits of the last few weeks...

WINE: Macaulay and I ventured to Slows on Monday for the second installment of the summer "Muscadet Mondays." Muscadet is a white French wine, and basically this event is just free wine and conversation on the patio on Monday evenings. Dean +1

CREPES: Le Petit Zinc is a small, new(ish) French cafe around the corner from our house. Everything is delicious, especially the crepes sucrees, and I have taken many people there to experience it firsthand. Rookies this week include Thomas and my big sister Heather. Dean +1

WORK: We're in the midst of some massive system upgrades at the school. Which means I'm installing and updating dozens of new and mostly-new computers. Donors rock! Dean +1

SLEEP: I need more of it. Lots more. Terrorists +1.

FINAL SCORE: Dean 3, Terrorists 1. DEAN WINS. WIN FOR AMERICA.

With one glaring exception (AT&T DSL, I'm looking at you), we are settled into our new residence in the city of Detroit. There are boxes to be unpacked, power strips to be plugged in, and coffee grinders to be found (this has been a significant battle), but at least Conan O'Brien's return to late night television was enjoyed in crystal clear high definition yesterday.

The Award Goes To...

Thanks in this huge transition goes out to many, many people, especially to Alan, Vivian and the just-moved-up-two-circles-of-hell Sharon (the identity of the circles will remain private due to federal privacy laws). As an aside, Sharon wrote an incredible account of this weekend's move. It was encouraging to see the number of new friends who dropped by to help us unpack the truck and move in.

Times, they are a-changin'

The reality is that life as we have known it is changing significantly. We no longer have the suburban luxuries (and problems, don't forget the problems) that we have had for the past few years. The friends we've made in and around Novi are now 30-40 minutes away (which is not far, really, but it is a lot less convenient).

On the other hand, a lot of other things are significantly closer. The city that I so desparately love. The ability to have our own space, to garden, and to physically make a difference in our community in a way that isn't available in the midst of apartment communities and condos.

_____

So for those of you who live in our old stomping grounds, we still love you. We'll definitely make a point to come visit often. And come visit us! We've got twice the space now and a lot of character in the new place.

And who knows, you might enjoy yourselves in Detroit.

Highlight of the week: This will be a lame post, but I just needed to post something to maintain my Monday morning routine. 

We all know "them." Most of us, if we have the space, are "them." Nobody wakes up one day and says "I hope to be 50 with a house full of crap I don't use," but most of us get to that point anyhow. But why?

The Drepression Mentality

My great-grandmother is in her 90s, a product of the Great Depression sandwiched between two World Wars (she was born in 1913, if I remember correctly). As is true for many from that era, they were taught to save everything they had because you never knew how tight things could get. That makes sense. Until the economy changes.

For the most part, the past 60 years have been years of economic prosperity in the West. People went from one car to two, and expanded their carages to compensate. But let's be honest, how many of those homes have a car port filled with...stuff? How many of us have that third (or fourth) bedroom to store...stuff? Oh, you know, you might need it some day. Like the hockey sticks, for when you get around to buying ice skates again. Or (like me) the closet full of computer parts, in case you ever get to a point where you need an 8th CD-ROM drive. It's stupid. And it's preventing someone else from using it, especially if they NEED it.

One shirt, two shirts, red shirts, blue shirts

Sometime around December 31st, we'll rush down to Goodwill or The Salvation Army to drop off a bag of clothes for a tax write-off. It makes us feel good, we haul something out of the house, and Uncle Sam gives us a (very small) high five for our hard work. But it is pretty foolish, if you think about it.

We don't give our stuff to someone who needs it, we give it to someone who will sell it to them, or better yet, we treat those agencies like garage sales and turn right around and buy someone else's crap from them. Cost effective, perhaps, but if we didn't need those ten sweaters, why did we just buy 8 more and bring them home?

The truth is, we have taken the human contact out of helping, and sharing, and even loving. I have great respect for The Salvation Army et al, but they are misused by us in suburbia as much as they help out those who can't afford the mall. Better than nothing, for sure, but it still lacks the relational aspect.

Something-for-nothing, just a smile

Twoshirts.org is a relatively new website (1.5 years old, I think) that is premised on the "needs and wants" mentality. Post what you've got that you don't need. Or post a wish list of things you would like. Or do both. The site allows you to "claim" items that are available, and then guess what? You work with the person(s) to get/give the item. You're working with people!

It works best with many people using it in a geographic location, so go check it out. You can get rid of the extra stuff in your house and make sure it gets into the hands of people who will use it or, better yet, need it. And who knows? You might not need to buy the house with the garage for the second car.