of a single year. When we love, there rises in us
a sap from time immemorial.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Just 100 hours into The 100 Scintillating Days of Summer Humidity--we groan towards the Fall! May brought us a delicious road trip to Minneapolis, where we joined Lindsay's sister Kristen and her husband Sam, visiting friends working with local churches on a variety of issues ranging from racial reconciliation to climate justice.
Our friend Katherine Parent (below, dressed in a crab costume, with Lindsay) is working with Redeemer Lutheran Church in north Minny. She is working on a very important PhD dissertation, honestly wrestling with the church's historic enmeshment in racism and white privilege.
The indigenous roots of the region are finding resurrection power. The city council voted to include the original name for the white settler moniker "Lake Calhoun" on their signage. At the annual May Day parade, there was an amazing display of costume, song and dance.
Our friend C.John took us on an afternoon tour that ended at the Jamar Clark vigil. Clark was an unarmed black man killed by police 6 months ago.
We joined Kristen and Sam in a hike to Minnehaha Falls.
This mural for hometown legend Prince had been created just the day before we arrived.
And, of course, always time for a baseball game. The Detroit Tigers were coincidentally in town to play the Twins.
Meanwhile, back on Cecil:
A mid-day pile-up...
…left the jetta of our friend Cait all smashed up. Another casualty of poor infrastructure to protect these neighborhoods, through which heavily trafficked thoroughfares run, without proper signage or speed bumps to slow cars down. There have been multiple accidents on this corner in the past couple months alone, while historically petitions for intervention have gone answered by the city. While waiting the hour-and-a-half for police to come, Lindsay spoke with moms on the block who are too afraid to let their kids play in the front yard, running too high a risk they may be hit by a car.
This is the car of one of our new neighbors…parked below our place everyday.
We took a group of college students from Loyola of Chicago on a tour of the Eastside. This is our friend Gregg Newsom. He and his wife Anjela bought a home at auction for $500 and have spent a lot of time and energy making it livable. He sees it as a vital aspect of his vocation to tell the story of his neighborhood and the long-time neighbors who are getting driven out by rapid gentrification. New block clubs are being started to conjure up displacing schemes to remake this section of the city. Gregg is exposing all kinds of devious stuff going on behind the scenes.
We brought them by the Heidelberg Project, a neighborhood art installation started 30 years ago by Detroit native Tyree Guyton, telling the story of the "end of the world" brought on by mass consumerism, labor exploitation and resource extraction.
Lindsay organized a dinner celebrating our water delivery team, including Lucy and Daniel who are getting married at the end of the summer!
And then…Tiffany (Lindsay's BFF) joined us for a long weekend to check out all the action. Here they are after a dinner of pupusas down at the river walk on the Eastside.
Bonus coverage: our dear friend Mike Smith gifted Tom with an opportunity to travel with him to Quebec and Montreal for four nights. Mike takes 150 plane trips per year for business. In his "free time," he is taking some phenomenal photos. Take in these shots:
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