I'm Ebullient

Over the past few days, I had the pleasure of driving through the Midwestern states of Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota with my parents and fiancee en route to visiting my sister and her husband in Rochester, MN. Driving through the Midwest provides some fertile ground for idea development for a blog with subject matter like this blog, and I aim to have several new posts in the not-too-distant future regarding thoughts from these travels and other unarguably hilarious insights. One of the best parts of my holiday weekend, though, was sifting through my emails upon my return to Michigan.

Two things in particular happened that really made my week, and I sincerely hope that these two trends will continue. Calling them trends, of course, is a complete falsehood as a trend requires more than one data point, but I need to hold on to the little victories so that I can actually start to believe that I am making some tiny difference in the world.

First, a friend of mine from high school named Jason sent me a link to a poem written by Jack White of The White Stripes that was printed in The Detroit Free Press over the weekend. I am a vociferous reader of the local news, but it is nearly impossible to catch every pertinent article, and I happened to miss this poem both online and in print. Jack White is from Detroit, and some negative Detroit-related quotes have recently been attributed to him in Rolling Stone Magazine. He felt that his quotes were misconstrued and this prompted him to write a love letter in the form of a poem to the city of Detroit. Much more on this poem later, but I could not be more thankful to Jason for sending me the link. These are the little things that make for a successful and consistently updated blog, and if you happen to read these words and find the material interesting, I heartily encourage you to direct me toward relevant links in the comment sections or to send me an email if you know me directly or indirectly.

Second, another friend of mine named Dan actually contributed multiple comments to the blog. Again, these are the things that make for a successful blog. I have known Dan a long time, but there was no incentive for him to take his time and effort to add a few of his own words to flesh out the material beyond my own self-indulgence and universally disappointing attempts toward humor. He also mentioned in one of the comments that he is a regular reader and he is directing some of his friends toward the site. It may sound ludicrous, but having just one regular reader (I know of) makes me obscenely happy. If you find it in your heart to add comments and, just possibly, point a friend toward the blog, I will be honored.

Thank you Jason and Dan.

And no, I did not have to use a thesaurus to write the title. I'm an ebullient product of the ebullient Michigan education system...ebullient.