Detroit Day

Detroit is not a day time city and it doesn’t do Mondays at all. In fact, I found the emptiness kind of eerie, like a ghost town of skyscrapers. There were no people in business suits rushing off to work. There are no corner markets, or Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner. The traffic lights are working, but there’s no reason to wait for a walk sign. There are no cars coming. I saw one jogger and and a few street people out and about, early like us. One man hit us up for spare change. Shayne gave him two dollars and then they struck up a full blown conversation about life on the street. Shayne told him that he’d been homeless before and then they prayed together. I watched this unfold. I can barely get my son to say two words in a row to me most days.

We discovered this thing called “the people mover” which is a train that loops the downtown, but high in the sky. The stations are full of art and there are great views of the street murals. I was super excited, snapping photos, and then I saw the baseball stadium and I wanted to get off and go see it. There was a woman laying on the sidewalk, completely passed out. Shayne said, “This is so sad. We can’t just leave her here.” He actually watched her for a full minute to see that she was breathing and then took his sweatshirt off, and put it on top of her. I snapped photos of the giant tigers in front of the stadium, but couldn’t get the woman on the street off my mind.

After spending a long time getting off and on the people mover, we decided to go to the Henry Ford museum. While waiting at the bus stop, an older man came over with a shopping cart and a random metal pole, like maybe part of a tent. He commented on Shayne’s green t-shirt, which was covered in paint. He has other clothes, but he almost always looks like he purposely took his clothes from the garbage pile. Shayne asked the man a question about brown pants which made no sense. But the man answered and they had a little chuckle.

I got on the bus and I was going to tell Shayne that he didn’t have to engage with every homeless, crazy person that we met, but then I swallowed my words. He was being nice and genuinely interested and what was it really hurting. When our stop came, the man’s metal pole got stuck in the door way and he couldn’t get his shopping cart out of the tram. People started cursing and yelling. Shayne turned back and dislodged the pole and got the cart down onto the ground. We missed our connecting bus, but I decided that it didn’t really matter. The museum would still be there. We got Detroit pizza and sat in the sunshine instead.

The restaurant was in the theater district, which I guess has the second most theater seats in the United Staes. The Fox. The Fillmore. The Gem. These buildings were built when money was flowing. There is marble and brickwork that is unbelievable. The word that came to mind was opulent. I felt like I was on a scene of a movie. A dystopian flick. The war is over. The city didn’t burn, but most of the people did. The survivors are still emerging from the shadows to see what can be salvaged.

Shayne said he liked Detroit. He said it felt like the place that he belonged. I could see it too. There was a light in him that I haven’t seen in a long time. I like Detroit too. It doesn’t feel like home to me, but I understand it. It’s a place with a rich history, but has seen its share of darkness and pain. It’s just trying to figure out how not to wallow in the despair and find the light for what is next.