Follow-up on the Meltdown (Amy’s Baking Company)

I shared some thoughts the other day about the internet viral circumstance that is Amy’s Baking Company (ABC). They have their grand reopening this evening. They began the day by conducting an interview with a local Scottsdale radio station. The sessions (parts 1-7) are posted on YouTube for review. Samy sat mostly mute, as Amy drove the effort to ‘clarify’ their side of the ordeal. It was sadly more of the same, as Amy just said what she has continued to say. Everyone is bad … Amy and Samy are good – and misunderstood. The couple also, canceled a press conference scheduled to occur just prior to their reopening after receiving a letter from Fox reminding them that their agreement to be on the show Kitchen Nightmares, precludes them from discussing any aspect of this participation other than to say they had been on the show. They face law suits and great big fines, if they ignore this agreement. The radio interviews may in fact represent a breach of this agreement. Noteworthy is the fact that their recently hired PR firm dropped them, after Fox issued this cease and desist warning. A petition has even been formed to submit to the US Dept of Labor requesting an investigation of ABC’s practice of keeping tips from their staff – and – this is only going to get worse for Amy’s Baking Company. Sadly, Amy will insist on it.

ABC Welcomes Customers

I deeply understand struggle. I deeply understand relational struggle. I deeply understand what it is like to be caught in such relational struggle when too many unhealthy self-absorbed souls see you as a post to drive in the ground. Amy’s Baking Company however, is surrounded by literal hordes of past employees and customers with matching horror tale experiences with ABC, going back years. Joining them now, is the most prominent celebrity chef on television and the programs and network he represents. Vast quantities of news sources and columnists have waded in and offered only unflattering assessments and commentary of this couple. Amy and Samy just can’t grasp that although they remain decisionally confused – there is more than enough information and behavioral examples available for the masses to reach solid conclusions, at least about this couples behavioral health. Honestly, no more need be known about this or that detail, pertaining to this or that pointless aspect to arrive at these conclusions; but this fact remains beyond them. Again, this is the most painfully fascinating aspect of this entire fiasco. There are behavioral lessons that millions could draw from this circus, if close attention were paid.

Samy & Amy Explain & Explain

This couple defines extreme dysfunction. Amy especially is unhealthy in very pronounced ways. The biggest obstacle to her ever moving in any personal growth is her deep inability to recognize and accept her personal issues. She is completely committed to always aggressively pushing away any personal assessment that may show her in a negative light – accurate or not. Not just dismissal but instead over-the-top assaults with deep dysfunctional conviction to deflect, deny, and refute ANYTHING negative about herself. She will pour out streams of lies, only to be perpetually caught in these lies – to then get angry and combative saying and doing anything to stop the truth from landing in her lap. I can’t imagine their business succeeding in any long-term manner; or even remaining as is much longer. In the end, they will conclude that they just didn’t get a fair shake and the malicious-masses had it in for them. That is tragic and sadly, all too common among such souls. Poor ‘us’ … everyone ‘else’ is mean and wrong.

Another Door Closes (Ray Manzarek Dies)

He lived a pretty long life with lots of amazing experiences. At age 74, Ray Manzarek succumbed to bile duct cancer. For those under the age of 40, you probably don’t know of the man. Actually, most over 40 probably don’t know the name – or they’ve heard it but lack an association for it. Ray Manzarek was the keyboardist (and certainly much more) for The Doors. I hate to use overly abused terms like seminal and psychedelic in describing them but they’re appropriate and indeed necessary. The Doors were the epitome of progressive as it first began to apply to genre in rock music. They are without question one of the most uniquely influential bands of all time for many reasons. One was simply timing. The Doors came and went – having made six very successful and still meaningful albums by the time Jim Morrison (singer) died in 1971. That is to say, they were ‘out there’ and moving in weird poetic music wonder before it became so widespread and over produced through many 70’s artists. The Doors were more akin to the Grateful Dead meet Moody Blues meet pre-Meddle-era-Pink Floyd meet Elvis meet William Yeats (or perhaps Edgar Allan Poe). BTW, only some would-be-music-aficionado would write that last sentence, as if it actually meant something. But I could not be more sincere.

The Doors were absolutely unique

The Doors were this odd little band from LA, on a stark empty stage with three mute stoic rambling subtle jazz musicians and an Elvis-esque leather clad bohemian poet vocalist – and no bass player. A glance at any Doors photo leaves one with the feeling that something in the scene is out of place. Something – for some inexplicable reason – doesn’t quite fit. A bit like seeing an old photo of an American civil war scene and squinting to make out the odd object in the distant corner of the photo that appears to be a Lamborghini Aventador. They really were powerfully timeless and absolutely impossible to nail down as a flavor of music.

Jim – The Lizard King

Like most famous rock bands their mouth was their face. The singer, Jim Morrison was the front man and head of this winding snake. He was bizarrely pronounced in his subtlety. He spoke in these quiet monotone description-laced passages. Sometimes oddly succinct and truncated, and other times endless sweeping diatribes; but always with a veneer and tone of cryptic insider. Like Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, you just weren’t always sure what he meant – and you thought perhaps he wasn’t either. But you couldn’t shake the impression that he did, and that he simply spoke from places of understanding and experience that the vast majority of us were unfamiliar with and couldn’t visit. You were also innately convinced you didn’t want to. He could croon and growl. He could be loungy and screaming. He melted as he waxed poetic. The only thing common about him was his uncommonness. In this regard he was the consummate impossible to fully grasp tormented genius artist that swam and ultimately drowned, in personal issues. He was one of these guys in every single tiny little way. He even bore a certain resemblance to many of them – Nick Drake, Tim and Jeff Buckley. Too much pain around the eyes. Like so many of these souls, Jim Morrison ultimately couldn’t take being Jim Morrison. Completing a tragic twelve month period in rock-n-roll history that saw the deaths of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin – Jim Morrison joined them in a sad heroin-clouded bathtub departure on July 3, 1971.

I realize I’ve shared more about Jim Morrison than I have Ray Manzarek. I simply relate with and appreciate more of what Mr. Morrison sought to do among humanity than I do that of Mr. Manzarek. Not that Mr. Morrison did this, ‘well’ – but I absolutely see and greatly value much of his motivation, though not all. In what may seem a contradiction, I also share that I was never an immense Door’s fan. Where I recognize his artistic talent as being extremely rare, Morrison was always just to strangely macabre in many ways for me. Just too comfortable and even seeking to stroll with evil, in many respects. Where Black Sabbath and Dio got all the focus for being the grandfather’s of black gothic rock – where Pink Floyd was held as standard bearers of bleak depressing music – the Doors were just too dark for me. There was such a vein of destructive presence that ran through even the lightest and ‘poppiest’ of their music. Deceptively so. Just a constant voice of inevitable waste. Sorry, but I’ll leave any assessment or interpretation of those comments with the reader.

Jim & Ray – very different souls

Today, some 42 years later – Ray Manzarek makes his own exit stage left. Ray seemed to be in many ways, all that Morrison wasn’t. Ray seemed to be vastly more about success and money and acclaim. I’m not saying that he was merely some superficial soul. Simply, that he was closer to being one of everyone than Morrison. Much closer. However, he now makes his departure having stayed the course to live the all of his life, as completely as he so desired. I must admit – I’m curious what views of eternity Jim and Ray see today.

In The News

I’m working late one evening many years, ago when my boss strolls in having come from the hospital. His wife had just given birth to his first child and after a long day at the hospital, he had stopped by work to complete a few things before going back. After congratulating him we broke into a chat about life. I enjoyed this relationship more than any supervisor I’ve ever worked for. He was intelligent and we would invariably delve into the depth of much. He made a comment and then said, “it’s like when they caught the Unabomber”. I excitedly interrupted him by asking, “they caught him”? He smiled – paused – and continued … “yea, man … they caught him last week”. The fact that this was news to me greatly amused him and clearly stirred some measure of disbelief. I explained that I was simply very selective about my following of news. My doing so had evolved over the years from feeling obligated to keep up with everything – to catching news infrequently, as I deemed necessary. I didn’t completely avoid news. Being a technical professional I certainly remained atop technology and related trends. I read news about sports, science, history – much. I simply avoided the primary big ‘front page’ news sites where all the feces of the news world is marketed with great quantities of torrid, lurid details and too many superlatives.

I recalled this recently with the Boston bombings. When that occurred, I began visiting CNN and other news sources to keep abreast of related affairs. I have since, maintained the habit of keeping up with all the latest news. I have subsequently relearned a powerful lesson. 99% of the ‘news’ consists of depressing, discouraging, deflating, pointless issues. The front page of CNN for instance is entry after entry of local, regional, national, and global pains. Like many, my father was a news junkie. He swam in it. He listened, read, watched, drank in, considered, stewed, worried, and complained about news. I remember years ago when I decided God had never called us to be so buried under the news of the world. To instead, be focused on the good news of God’s goodness and all that entailed. God would not have us keep our heads in the ground but we are only fools to seek to absorb so much never-ending struggle on a global level. I’m confident that will strike some – perhaps many as being naïve and even foolish. They will offer comments about our responsibilities as citizens of the world to be aware of that going on around us. I counter with … that is not wise. If it is news worthy such that it would or should impact your life, you will certainly hear of it from the multitude of web denizens that both scour the internet for the latest and then feel compelled to gather in the endless market squares to discuss. From the water cooler to Facebook to Twitter to you’re umbilical cell phone – you’re going to hear about it; whether you need to, want to or not. It is hard enough to find moments and places of refuge and peace in our lives without practicing the bad habit of regularly swimming in the pools of newsworthy despair. The circumstances surrounding Jodi Arias and Travis Alexander are only heart wrenching and insane. The IRS targeting of US citizenry is only defeating. I’m pleased that Angelina Jolie feels edified by her choice to have a preventative mastectomy. It no doubt took great consideration and even greater courage. I then become concerned about the countless women that will read of her decision and worry if they should do the same – and then worry about the ramifications of actually doing so – when the reasons Ms. Jolie made her decision do not apply to 99% of women. Ms. Jolie didn’t share that fact. I am only thrilled to learn of the three women being rescued from their home imprisonment in Ohio; but to swim in these affairs daily is awful and ultimately serves no purpose – except to overwhelm us with countless examples of humanity’s capacity to crush humanity.

I have once again employed the habit of ignoring these dumping grounds of discouragement until and if I again, become aware of some issue or circumstance that leads me to visit their dark rooms for greater understanding of some matter. I feel better already.

Sadly Irrelevant

Like many, I have always enjoyed sports. When Lance Armstrong finally admitted his use of PEDs (Performance Enhancing Drugs), I don’t think anyone among the greater public was shocked. Prior to his confession there was simply too much in the way of painfully specific testimony, given by too many credible sources, for way too many years. Those that had surrounded him for years were joining the accusation list in bunches. We as the public did the caveman’s math. Too much accusation for too long – something’s up. We didn’t gather to protest or bury Armstrong in petitions and complaint; but we didn’t because until it was proven, we really didn’t have much personally invested. We cared – but only as far as evidence clarified. I’ve read comments by many involved with professional sports claiming stunned disbelief when Armstrong finally confessed and I’m prepared to believe them. But I would necessarily qualify that belief. For instance, Rick Reilly – perhaps the most prominent of present day sports columnists expressed great anger about Lance’s confession and offered a litany of reasons for holding belief that Armstrong had been clean, all those years. I believe the primary reason was because he simply wanted to believe. Where the general public can oftentimes be too cynical towards pro athletes (and celebrities in general) – we are also relationally distanced such that it is often easier for us to simply embrace big overt indicators that an athlete is using PEDs or cheating. Folks like Reilly become too close relationally and thus often choose to ignore, color, and dismiss behavior and other signs that something is wrong. Classic codependency. This is because they too, are simply human and humans don’t want to be let down by those we know and have faith in and admire. They also get so immersed professionally in having to discuss and expound on these issues to absurd depths and degrees that only take them past the obvious and deeper into the forest and thus, unable to see the trees – or Barry Bonds growing cranium.

Bonds noggin’ expansion through the years

I noticed a sentiment lying deep in myself this evening. I hopped on ESPN to catch up on the sports world. I’m odd in that I am the most aware sports fan that virtually never watches games. I follow players, teams, seasons – but virtually never watch the games. The biggest reason for this stems from the way-past-insane greed in pro sports. I used to watch any NBA game that came on. Loved the action. About a decade back the games moved from basic channels to special sports channels which meant having to pay more money to get special cable packages to watch. Then the NBA went further and created their own channel such that I now had to subscribe to this unique channel, in addition to paying for my special cable package. Most substantial sports from MLB to golf have ultimately buried their viewership under these special charges just to watch any games. The profiteering in sports has grown by untold billion$ these last two decades, as quarter-of-a-billion dollar contracts are given to guys that throw and hit a ball. Guys that cheat and get caught cheating repeatedly – and still get massive contracts. The last such contract given by the New York Yankees to Alex Rodriguez in 2007 was worth $275 million dollars for 10 years. His contract before that was for $252 million dollars with the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez is making almost $30 million dollars this year to sit on the disabled list. He couldn’t even play well enough to be included on the team during last year’s playoffs. That same New York Yankees disabled list includes almost 100 million dollars in 2013 salaries, alone. Like all professional athletes, baseball players are only pushing all-things-money related to levels that are light-years beyond extreme.

Mark bulked up into a big cheater

Alright – I’m getting a bit too deep in the greed thing. Tonight, as I clicked on the ESPN baseball page, I heard my own very sincere voice rise from within me. It wasn’t that disgruntled fan voice that emerges at times of loss and team crisis. It was one of resignation and embrace. As I saw a headline regarding the latest baseball PEDs issues, I simply felt a resounding “who cares”! Specifically – who cares about baseball. It so struck me in absolution that I had to sit back and examine it for a moment. I realized my voice was honest – and most important – firm. There was no emotion or feeling in any way attached. When I pondered why I might no longer care, the answer was instant and overwhelming. We can no longer trust any statistic related to any performance for any player affiliated with professional baseball. Even as so much has come to light in the last 10 years about PEDs abuse, particularly in baseball … it simply continues to the degree that we as fans are numb to it. Player performance literally means nothing and can’t. If you don’t believe this, take a look at the last baseball Hall of Fame vote for player enshrinement. Not just one or two questionable players didn’t make it. No one did. Baseball can spin it any way they like. They can say that the Hall of Fame so values integrity that they aren’t compelled to include anyone. The sad truth is this last time, they couldn’t. To display any measure of integrity, they must necessarily exclude most of those being considered in this era. However, these include many of the biggest names – biggest achievers in hitting, pitching, and overall playing production in the history of baseball. Barry Bonds is the all-time home runs leader and the only 7 time league MVP – EVER! Roger Clemens is the only 7 time Cy Young award winning pitcher – EVER! Yet, these players and a number of other monster statistics holders couldn’t get in.

Sammy – PEDs AND Corked Bats

The late 90′s saw a literal onslaught of hitting records as multiple players suddenly, inexplicably, and simultaneously began obliterating hitting records that no player had neared in almost half a century. Single season records, all-time records, all manner and types of power hitting by a gang of power hitters. Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi and too many others. All linked to extensive PEDs use with time. These weren’t some good players. These and other PEDs-pros like Roger Clemens have literally defined baseball for the last twenty years. Nine of the top twenty and six of the top ten home run leaders of all time have reached that point in the last decade. Five of the [only] eight players in history to hit more than 600 home runs reached that point in the last decade. That’s topping the performance of some 20,000 professional baseball players over the last century and a half. Most of these latter-day sluggers are now, known PEDs abusers. Sadly, I still believe a couple of these players such as Ken Griffey Jr. and perhaps Jim Thome did it the old fashioned way – skill and hard work. But I really have no idea and recognize that their performance is necessarily to be seen through the filter of the great cheating era in sports. All of sports. At some point they will begin enshrining many of these players. So many of these players that we all know cheated. Cheating in baseball (indeed all sports) is so widespread and has become so in-your-face obvious that we now regularly hear sports analysts, columnists, players, owners, agents, and commentators discussing whether or not such cheating really matters – that it’s just part of the game – any game – and always has been. Using expressions like, “the ‘cheater’ is the player that gets caught – but the player that doesn’t get caught is considered a ‘smart’ player”. Many say corking one’s bat doesn’t actually help a hitter. Many say ‘greasing’ or ‘cutting’ a ball doesn’t help a pitcher. Many say using prohibited drugs doesn’t make a bad hitter into a good one – or a bad pitcher into a great one. These positions are riddled with reasoning fallacies and much like the present status of Major League Baseball – are sadly irrelevant. The philosophical component necessary in this to have any appetite to care about baseball only makes me sick to my stomach. I’m grateful that I remain unable to bend and contort my understanding to arrive at their conclusions. Breaking the rules to win is cheating. Cheating in a game … is wrong.

Rocket Roger – Cheater!

I understand that players are competitors. But what we seem to increasingly ignore is that players, play. They play games. Man – when I have to embrace cheating as being part of the game, it ceases to be a game – ceases to be honest fun competition – and becomes merely dishonest business. These cheaters are all retiring, now and MLB is shouting it’s improved, more stringent drug testing programs with significant penalties to end doping in baseball. New generations of overt PEDs abusers have already taken their place with new issues coming to light with regularity. Professional sports from cycling to hockey involves untold billions and billions and billions of dollars and those involved only want more. When winning-by-cheating and cheating to get more money is the pervasive heart of their interest, I struggle to generate any interest at all.

ABC’s of Meltdown (Amy’s Baking Company)

I am ashamed to admit it but I must. I am captivated by an odd internet buzz. By now, many of you have no doubt read of the bizarre circumstance this has become. If not – be careful. It’s addictive. The most fascinating element for me is simply the behavior of the couple at the center of this food-service-circus. Restaurateurs Samy and Amy Bouzaglo of Scottsdale, AZ – aka: Amy’s Baking Company – have demonstrated to the world what it means for two souls to pour themselves out in dysfunctional, delusional, combative, insane denial. It actually began about three years, ago when some lone blogger with a food related site shared his dining experience at Amy’s. He wasn’t overtly mean or rude. He simply wrote a negative review sharing the meal wasn’t what he had hoped for in terms of enjoyment and taste; and that it was doubtful he would return. He included the review on the website Yelp. Amy was made aware of this review and freaked. She responded online (bad idea) by raking this guy over the coals. Complete with a fine collection of expletive-laced personal cuts and ended by accusing him of being affiliated with those she deemed competition (extremely bad idea). Those she saw as this competition became aware and the exchange began a-rollin’. Others of course joined the fray. Anyone displaying any raw vulnerability on the web, as it pertains to some offence or critique may as well be pouring blood over their heads and jumping in a shark tank – tied up. Humanity loves to attack en masse in these instances and the internet allows the attacking masses to do so in the relative safety of pseudo-web-anonymity and sheer numbers of assailants.

Chef Gordon

Fast forward a few years. Amy gets the opportunity to get famous TV chef and often grumpy dude Gordon Ramsay (yea – that guy) to come visit her restaurant. She believes he will show up – taste her cooking that so many had found fault with and tell the world they were all crazy, and she is a culinary genius (monumentally bad idea). She apparently had no real grasp of his show’s intent and purpose; nor apparently of who Ramsay is in his own aggressive behavior. His show Kitchen Nightmares is aimed at him assessing a restaurant’s operations and making recommendations for improvement. I realize I just made that sound congenial when his efforts are really to stir televised controversy and confrontation so he can make cast members feel like excrement. Both Ramsay and the Bouzaglos were in for a shock upon meeting. This entire episode of Kitchen Nightmares can be viewed by clicking here. It is nothing short of gripping compelling insanity. It will in-no-way spoil the show to spoil the ending. It is the only time in the show’s history that Ramsay gave up and simply left, as the couple was impossible to deal with in any manner. Making it more surreal and yet, more fascinating was the fact that this was the most civil I have ever seen Ramsay interact with anyone. It was clear throughout most of the show that he just never found any sane footing with this couple. I think he was so stunned by their overwhelming issues that he felt obligated to be the solid presence of lucidity and civility. I know this dynamic well. When you are in the presence of such behavioral and emotional instability you take slower softer steps. You are continually checked by the awareness that the unhealthy party believes you are moronic and mad as a hatter. Throughout the episode this couple cursed at customers for politely expressing displeasure with things like under and over cooked food, as well as hour-plus waits on simple pizza and pasta dishes. Oftentimes screaming at them; telling them to get out and not come back. The husband (i.e. Samy) is this strange little guy seemingly devoted to his wife in almost slave fashion. At one point Samy very calmly tells the camera that if anyone ever expresses any displeasure for his wife’s food – he tells them to get out and never come back. At another point in arguing with Ramsay, Samy tells Ramsay not to mess with him because he is a gangster and will “Fxxx” him up. They take all the tips from their staff and have gone through hundreds of employees in just a couple of years. Yea … they’re healthy!

Deflect, deny, refute

It doesn’t stop there, however. Once this episode aired, tens-of-thousands of internet strollers began visiting the restaurant’s related websites. From Facebook to Twitter to Yelp and more – prodding, poking, and provoking this unstable duo. Sadly, they took the bait (death knell bad idea). The result was an online meltdown by this couple such as I’ve never seen. Amy finally seemed to realize to some degree how crazy they appeared blasting these nasty comments from their websites. She then made the ludicrous proclamation that all of their online accounts had been ‘hacked’ and someone else had written all of those wacky mean things. An assertion that is going to come back to haunt her, as any technical exploration will confirm the origins of these postings – she just doesn’t understand how that works. It’s a mystery to her how these activities are traced but her attempts to cover her dysfuntional tirades with lies will only paint her in increasingly poor light. She stated that the FBI was now investigating just who this culprit was. A few local news stations did some aftermath interviews with them. There was Amy offering up explanation after absurd explanation about all that had gone on. You get the impression she’s got a savvy sixth-grader on retainer, as her adviser. Some kid that keeps telling her to just say what amounts to ’nu-uh’ – because kids and chronic liars believe you can’t argue with nu-uh. All the while, little Samy just looks like he has been walking this road of abstract broken rationale with Amy for far too long. I’m tellin’ you – reality – wilder than any script imaginable. News outlets across the nation began reporting on it and that’s how I became aware. Turns out that Amy is apparently a masterful (and unnervingly comfortable) liar. Her homemade desserts and pastas are all made by someone else. Buy, order, ship, bulk stuff. Ironically, the desserts were about the only edible items they sell that get any real compliments. Apparently Amy also, has a past of sorts. It seemed almost painfully fitting to find that she was convicted and did prison time some years back, for identity theft and financial fraud. This for me was the proverbial horrendous wreck you just can’t look away from. Again, I’m sure this is largely because of the emotional makeup of the main characters – Amy and Samy B. It was simply being able to watch these personas be crazy – literally breathe crazy – while simultaneously asserting in terms and behavior of sheer lunacy that ALL others were nuts, that had me glued in sad suspense and awe.

Samy & Amy Bouzaglo of Amy’s Baking Co

As a good friend who is also a psychologist once told me – most people have significant issues of dysfunction. Few ever do anything in the way of personal growth to address that fact. Apparently, Amy feels they need a good fresh reboot from all of this and is having a grand re-opening in a few days. Here’s the post by her PR firm. They state a complete explanation will be forthcoming to explain Amy’s side in all this. I can’t imagine what that will be and admittedly, I also can’t wait. Human behavior. It can go terribly far south with no personal accountability. I believe what struck me most profoundly was the impression that this type of behavior is going to become increasingly more common among all of society with time. The ‘why’ of this perception will be for another post sometime. I also found myself wincing every time Amy would invoke her comments of faith and God. Her praying for this and that … child of God blah, blah. Followed by a string of rants at volume to make a sailor blush, as she ground everyone around her to dust. Especially a young teen girl on staff whom she fired for simply asking Amy, “are you sure” regarding an order. Just the stuff that so many hold up as evidence that those of any faith are nuts and big ol’ broken contradictions. Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post wrote a great little piece on this that is both wise and hilarious. This is more that just some web-window into someone’s online faux pax. This is a monumental display of truly dysfunctional human behavior that surrounds us each day. This dysfunctional behavior involves all of humanity as well and not just the overt brokenness of this Scottsdale, AZ couple. But we have to look closely, honestly, and openly to get more from it than just amazed disbelief. Any cursory web search will bring up examples of Samy and Amy’s meltdown. What follows are a few samples of comments posted by Amy and Samy throughout this affair. I wholly encourage good healthy – extensive – counseling for this very unhealthy couple.

In Blind Decline

It’s happening in pronounced fashion in New York, Pennsylvania, and Missouri. Evidence of its growing presence exists throughout the US. For the sake of brevity however, let’s just focus on a couple of best examples. Detroit, Michigan and Youngstown, Ohio are microcosms representing something powerful occurring in the US. The degree to which something most Americans remain fairly oblivious. These two cities symbolize in manifest reality what most of us would struggle to imagine; except perhaps, in some apocalyptic themed movie. What would you envision if I told you these cities have declined by 60% in population, since the 1960’s? Every year – steadily – progressively; with unimaginable drops in the last decade. No big deal? Perhaps, just natural ebb and flow of society?

Detroit Skyline by Night

Detroit’s population dropped 25% in the last decade taking it from the 10th largest city in the US to 18th. No city, large or small can absorb those changes. Detroit’s unemployment is almost 20%. They have over 78,000 vacant buildings and that number grows daily. That’s seventy eight t-h-o-u-s-a-n-d – 1/4th – 1 quarter – over 25% of their total number of properties. Not empty and maintained – vacant and abandoned; left to crumble. 78,000 skyscrapers, schools, factories, office-commercial buildings, apartments, hospitals, churches, and homes. That’s more commercial and residential buildings and square footage of developed structural space than most US cities have in total. Blocks and neighborhoods and miles and miles … and miles … of abandoned civilization. According to the Detroit News, more than half of the owners of Detroit’s 305,000 properties failed to pay their 2011 taxes resulting in a quarter of a billion dollars in taxes and fees going uncollected. The review also found 77 blocks in Detroit had only one owner who paid taxes in 2011. Both Detroit and Youngstown have so many vacant and abandoned areas of development that it would be cheaper to level these areas and give it back to nature than it is to provide utilities and services to these areas. That is … if they could afford to level them. Nature on the other hand won’t wait and reclaims in daily increments, what lies in rust and ruin.

Detroit’s Other Skyline

Detroit is in a state of financial emergency and is on the verge of having the state assume governmental control. The state went as far as to assign a financial manager to oversee their fiscal issues. This however, doesn’t preclude Detroit from being forced into the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history in coming months. Detroit has borrowed for decades from any and every source that would extend credit. The city has operated this way so long that no one will extend them credit, any longer. Detroit is subsequently asking all of those they borrowed from to be gracious and dismiss or defer their existing debt – and extend them yet, more credit. Detroit’s practice of ‘borrowing’ is in reality simply taking. It is the same practice they apply to their citizens. Those paying the exorbitant and ever-growing taxes. Hundreds-of-thousands of these souls have ceased to be subjects of the kingdom. They fled to find better lives, elsewhere. Remember the old adage however – “wherever you go … there you are“.  Many of those leaving will take their beliefs and behavior with them. Further examination will help reveal why that fact remains important.

Abandoned Youngstown Home

I first became aware of the blight of decline in Youngstown, OH about five years, ago. I was looking at national housing cost averages and believed the information I read for Ohio, had to be incorrect. The comparative disparity was huge. A little research demonstrated the numbers were accurate and that generated curiosity, as to why. Same as Detroit. People leaving in literal droves. Many – very many – simply leaving properties to add to the expanse of urban decay, as no one would or could buy them. The complete why of this decline is both complicated and simple. One may blame the types of industry, local to these declining areas and it would certainly be part. But I would argue that it would ultimately be a small part. The ultimate reason for this decline is a cancerous economic reality that permeates all corners of the globe and is only growing. The base nature of humanity. Whether you are republican, democrat, or independent – communist, socialist, capitalist, or a virgo is irrelevant. The only difference between Detroit, MI and Youngstown, OH is size. The only difference between Detroit and many other American cities is time.

Detroit’s decay grows in abundance

A hundred years ago we had no federal tax. Today, the average American will work 4-5 months each year – just to pay respective [annual] federal and state taxes for that year. This burden on ‘middle-earth’ cannot be sustained. The manner of societal life that perpetually has those who elect to seek and embrace responsibility, make related contributions for the good of themselves and the [collective] whole, and be continually abused as the expected anchor and resource foundation for the want of humanity – cannot be maintained. What the heck does that mean? That means that the number of those taking is growing in relationship and proportion to the shrinking number of those giving. More takers – less givers. The complicated reasons for this are the makings of a thesis for some soul seeking to obtain their PhD. However, it can be summed up pretty easily for the rest of us. Those trying to grow good are tired. Those trying to grow good economically, personally, spiritually – any genuine good that will in turn naturally extend good to others. These efforts – any such efforts have been and are increasingly so pawed at through greater demands of the self-absorbed many that these souls are simply giving up; with many resorting to joining the takers. For instance – no doubt some are – but all of the owners of those Detroit properties that are in default on their taxes are not merely corrupt souls looking to scam others. The taxes in these areas of decline only increase exponentially, as the blind insane practice of bad government sees the answer to gaining collective operating funds – much of which is only used to perpetuate and even grow massive areas of societal waste – is to take these funds from those that have them. Taking from those that have invested much good. Indeed, ultimately [economically] collective good. Unless a view of collective contribution and reinvestment is embraced at least by most, the natural result will be to leave most with little to nothing.

Youngstown Decay

Conversely – there are many that have been blessed to have vastly more than most. Extreme examples are perhaps the superstar professional athlete. Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw made $56,000 in 1975. The 49er’s Joe Montana made approximately twice that amount in 1985 at just over $100,000. Cowboys Troy Aikman made $2,500,000 in 1995 and $7,000,000 the next year. The Colts Peyton Manning made $14,000,000 in 2005 and is scheduled to earn $20,000,000 in 2015 with the Denver Broncos. You see the trend. That’s more than 350 times what Terry Bradshaw made 40 years earlier. These same percentage increases in pay for performance exist nowhere except among the richest of the rich. These insane payouts ultimately create crushing burdens to the common middle class tax payer. It isn’t remotely exclusive to sports figures. Virtually all celebrities, high level entrepreneurs, politicians, and even low-income wage earners have exacted increasingly greater demands on the middle class citizen. These middle class are the souls buying tickets to games, pay-per-view screenings, theater tickets, DVDs, and all forms of entertainment media. These middle class pay the taxes that fund massive new stadiums and arenas for these superstar athletes to play in – that these citizens can now no longer afford to purchase tickets to attend. These middle class pay each and every political figure and public ‘servant’ salary. The lower income also, rely on the middle class to fund healthcare, education, subsidized housing, and myriad assistance and welfare programs through taxation. I am not opposed to taxation. Just as the baker from Stranger Than Fiction, I am perfectly willing to pay my fair share for the genuine betterment of all. ‘All’ however, has increasingly come to mean ‘some’ or even select few. There are vastly more tax breaks and incentives for the rich and lower-income than the middle class tax payer. More educational funding opportunities. There are more housing assistance programs to help those facing or have faced foreclosure or bankruptcy due to poor choices in home loans than assistance for a couple simply seeking to remortgage their existing home loan. That last point will cause me to wander greatly so I will leave it there. There is simply less and less reason to work hard and contribute for the betterment of the whole of society. Or perhaps better – there are increasingly inherent penalties for doing so. For to do so means you will be seen as being responsible and trustworthy and society will then see you only, as the fountain of provision to pay for their wants and needs and mistakes. (i.e., government bailout of General Motors – ironically headquartered in Detroit)

Everything is not going to be alright

This isn’t just a middle-class-relic rant. The middle class has been America’s wallet forever – and that wallet is all but empty. The middle class hasn’t seen pay increases that compete with inflation in decades. Most haven’t even received annual cost of living increases of any amount in years, as so many American companies dug in against the economic woes of the last few years. Many of these same companies have done away completely with traditional benefits like retirement or healthcare coverage, in any form. What appears to be traditional middle class is now largely made up of people living with massive credit-debt. Very soon there will remain no discernible middle class, as it will be squeezed into oblivion by greed from all sides. I am genuinely sorry for the world those following after my generation are receiving. Detroit and Youngstown are middle-America. They represent in many ways, the economic attitudes and behavior of heartland America – good and bad. The societal bleeding we see playing out in economic ways, in these cities are merely the more vivid wounds of our nation; those on the surface issuing the most blood. Make no mistake – there are other wounds festering below the surface that will begin to appear elsewhere across our nation, as more and more feel the squeeze of so much taking, from their lives. This taking is more than just of an economic nature and that is the deepest rub. Those trying to make things better by just working a bit harder and giving a bit more … are very very tired.

Just another abandoned Detroit school

I’m not a political kind of guy. Politics don’t ultimately impact for change in ways, I view as most meaningful and they can’t. Laws can make some treat me appropriately – but laws in this respect only serve as guards and fences for some to honor or not. I reference it often but I love the fictional conversation between Christ and Karl Marx.

Marx: I want to put a new coat on every man.
Christ: I want to put a new man in every coat.

In many ways these cities represent the type of negative societal impact that the cult of doomsday preppers are readying for. I was tempted to dig deeper into the societal cancer that Detroit and Youngstown represent but far greater minds than mine have and will dissect these monuments to modern humanity’s decline. I simply encourage all of us to look more closely – as the show we are viewing in these cities is coming to a city near each of us, soon – unless we each decide to become new souls in our coats. I believe the best way to ultimately accomplish this begins with the following.

John 14:6 (NIV) – Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Click on this link or image below to take a quick tour of Abandoned Detroit:

Detropia – Documentary ponders the decay and future of Detroit: (Click image below for documentary trailer)

Trailer for Detropia Documentary

Three Chairs

“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” – Henry David Thoreau

I’m presently reading Thoreau’s Walden. Like the millions who read it before me, I am staggered by its beauty and thought. Literally each page being filled with expressions like “… as if we could kill time without injuring eternity”. This particular line used to close a portion of narrative regarding our wasting of life through pointless effort. The very thing I have most often aimed to prevent. Yet, looking back I am flooded with sad realization of the overwhelming quantity of this very waste that litters my life-landscape.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” – Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was the dude that gave us the oft used expression from the same text “… most men live lives of quiet desperation.” He lived during a period that saw the emergence of many great American writers, poets, and thinkers. Fellow transcendentalist-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet Walt Whitman, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), and others. Most of these lives culminating in and around the period of the Civil War, in America. Like or dislike … agree or disagree with these souls, few have ever matched their ability to be so crystal and sharp in their thought, wit, and expression. If you’ve never read it, I wholly encourage the reading of Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam & Eve. It is beyond hilarious. Here’s an excerpt from Adam’s Diary. Mark Twain also, carried deep intense rage towards God. Much of what he wrote about God (most to a friend in letters) was private and I only see the content as sincere human anguish, as he wrestled with so much that the religious world had espoused regarding God, and all related matters of faith. It is at least bitterly caustic – yet, each word resonates with my own being, as I recall the years and miles of personal struggles trying to make it past the obstacle of religion to actually encounter God’s heart. I found God’s heart exactly where common sense would dictate – in God’s word.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” – Henry David Thoreau

Sorry – I digress. Back to Walden. Kindred! The text opens with the chapter entitled Economy and it is my heart – my desires in whole, on so many levels. The timing is only serendipitous (perchance providential), as I try so hard to focus through the fog of so many life struggles to pick new paths of forward progress. I don’t mean to insult any younger reader – however, it would be very unlikely for you to fully appreciate what follows, if you are younger than thirty. I have so busied myself through thoughtful resignation to give myself in earnestness throughout my life to those things that I believed most appropriate, prudent, and possessing in eternal value. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yet, I painfully look back now, to see so many good motivations and good intentions that were laced with too many terrible threads of dysfunction, thoughtlessness, immaturity, selfishness, and even fear. I cared about too many things that just didn’t matter; at least not as I had them prioritized. I worked professionally in ways I loathed to make sums of money I didn’t need to facilitate life for others, in ways that were nothing short of waste, in too … many … ways. I fed the fallacies of faith through countless involvements of countless ministries that is so much of modern Christianity. In ways large and small, I placated the plasticity of waste through religion that is so very much of modern faith in America. Don’t get me wrong, while sharing my awe of Mr. Thoreau’s thinking and writing – I have not arrived at being ‘enlightened’ such that I now see the Bible as just some compiled religious words of men – or the supreme idiocy of the brilliant Mr. Emerson in just seeing Jesus as a good man and not God. As C.S. Lewis shared in Mere Christianity:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Is this a contradiction? My seeing these great American writers as being great thinkers – indeed brilliant? Yet, oftentimes stupid at best regarding the deity of Christ or even the existence of God or simply spiritual matters and faith. Pardon the expression but … heavens no. The greatest minds of humanity are complete lunatics at times. God called Solomon the wisest man of all. Solomon was the human instrument God used to write large portions of his Holy scripture. The books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and possibly a few of the Psalms. Yet, few men have ever finished their lives as foolishly as Solomon. His penchant for collecting wives and concubines left him open to being persuaded in his old age to allowing the rebuilding of certain heathen worship places throughout Israel. Reopening the doors for so many spiritual practices that had taken centuries to eradicate.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” – Henry David Thoreau

Mr. Thoreau’s beautiful text merely encourages and inspires me to go on. It even admonishes me – that I must go on. Onward in growing and becoming. Even when doing so perpetually increases the distance between myself and so much that has been central to my life, all my life. I feel to be the proverbial “dweller on the threshold”. Yet, it is not fear (I don’t think) that prevents my clear and confident forward movement, at the present. I pray, listen, think, explore, consider … yet, I know not – yet – my road to take – yet. I fit nowhere. I cannot – c-a-n-n-o-t sit in the shallow idle silly popular circles of the Christendom one hour more. I have invested all I know how to in encouraging change and I go mad. I understand that most will read that and without thought, merely cast me as a rebellious spiritual renegade when no one desires more or has tried harder by God’s grace to be a genuine supportive ‘part’ in fellowship with the Body of Christ. Some however, will read these words and know exactly what I speak of, as they have poured tears as well, in longing to be part of what has grown to be little more than various ‘hip’ programs or stale religious tradition. I long to know my way. I cannot convey all that has been these last few years. I say a bit smugly … nor, could you imagine. Yet, by God’s grace … here I am. What next is what I so desire to know and move in. I am not simply awaiting God to tell me, as his word says …

Proverbs 16:9 (NASB) – The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

But – I so need God’s assistance in sorting. Unlike Thoreau, I am presently most interested in two chairs. Like Nicodemus, I long to sit and speak with my God and bask in his wisdom and goodness and love. I need to know how to navigate all I must negotiate at this juncture of life. I will continue to pray, listen, think, explore, consider – that I would know my direction; and my God will direct my steps.

As I opened with Mr. Thoreau’s words – so shall I close with them.

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” – Henry David Thoreau