Loving the Bad Boy....

You know that feeling you got the first time you loved someone that your parents would, had they met them, or did LOATHE? The thought that maybe only you could understand how special this person truly was made you love them even more...you just didn't understand why your parents couldn't see the magic. 

I haven't had to deal with those sorts of feelings in a very long time, I am older and tend to be the parent in my own head sending myself warnings against loving "certain kinds of people". However, I often feel that very same twist of emotion when it comes to loving my city...Detroit. 

Detroit is the lover your parents warned you about. It's rugged and not quite as kept as some of its' counterparts. It keeps you up late and from time to time it will place you in harms way. Yet you love it more, all while thinking you should move on, grow up, find a more mature relationship. There are nicer, cleaner, better educated and more affluent cities you could date....but even when you leave....you find yourself called back to this unique part of heaven that only few can enter and leave as angels.

Just like dating the person your parents don't like...staying and believing in Detroit can get you some of the same concerned and annoyed looks and reactions. Some people just don't "get it" and they say "oh she'll grow out of it, it's just a phase". 

I hope to be the the girl who stays with the bad boy, Detroit, and through her own example and love helps remove his hard and bruised persona. I recognize how I sound "Jody my Jody" or I guess in my case "Motown my Motown"....my city is just going through a rough patch. It didn't have the best parents, or attend the best schools and it never liked the "right crowd". It took in our grandparents from the south still broken from years of Jim Crow...and those who immigrated from the East still carrying the weight of war and gave them a place to work, learn and grow. So yes he has seen the worst even in the best, and somehow still gave the masses infrastructure, rhythm, history and so much more yet he stands in the shadows of his big brothers like Chicago. No one believes in him like they believe in them. It's like being Isaiah when Jordan was around. Yeah you're good....but he is GREAT!

Detroit has tried to get it together, many times, and it seems the closer he gets he becomes self destructive, as if he doesn't believe he is good enough for real success, real blessings. I try to tell him how great he is but he can't hear me over the negative sounds of outside reporters, journalist, sociologist, psychologist, his own family and anyone else with a pen and need to stomp on a persons dream screaming "Shut It Down". 

I love him through it all. 

Loving a broken person can either make you stronger or leave you broken. Loving a broken city is much the same and just like when you love a person through pain, anger and neglect you must find ways to remain positive seeking out the good that is under the surface. It's there with Detroit and you don't have to look that hard to find it because at the core....there is light.

So if my "parents" ask where I am tonight can you tell them...I'm at your house? If they see me out with Detroit....they just won't understand why I love him so. 

Peace