I have a friend who loves Detroit.
He likes to break into the old derelict buildings.
He wears the post apocalyptic decay like a mohawk.
In Detroit, industrial music is redundant.

When you read the history,
it was not the automotive industry that destroyed that city.
It was the racism.

As you drive into town from the airport,
you pass neighborhoods with decently sized houses,
some are burned out,
black marks lick the wood above window frames,
evoking chaos nights when hundreds of homes were ablaze.
Halloween!

People still live in those neighborhoods.
People still live next door to those burnt out houses.
Children grow up playing night guns in those yards.

Why does it all feel vindicating?
Why is it all so fucking cool?

Because if the people who tell us what to do have failed,
that means that there is something for us to do.

We all yearn to be necessary.

---

The act of becoming an adult
involves identifying things that you care about
and taking responsibility for them.

It doesn't really matter what you take responsibility for,
because the need is everywhere.

It is the act of committing to something,
whatever it is,
that turns you into a man.

Getting to decide what to care about
is the greatest luxury that you will ever experience.