I grew up in Flint, MI. As a child I knew of a handful of kids with albinistic traits. Coming across an albino kid just wasn’t all that of an unusual occurrence then. A few years ago I was out and about and ran into someone who unmistakably lacked pigmentation. I remember thinking about that, and coming to the conclusion that as a kid I wouldn’t have thought it as unique as I do nowadays.

I have always understood albinism to be a hereditary condition. Was there something different about Flint? My only thought is that yes, there is something different about Flint and it has everything to do with hereditary.

Some history: The Great Sit Down Strike in Flint in 1936 opened a new era for the country. A single event, it is more or less credited with creating the middle class that we know of today. To be simplistic, before the sit down strike the average worker in America made pittance and had little to no rights. After the strike Unions began to impose more power accross the country and the standard working conditions and pay rates rose to the levels many of us benefit from today.

Because of the strike, Flint became a popular destination for people to find work. It is documented that a few familial places in the south specifically produced a great number of workers that came to Flint to escape poverty and start a new life in the north. As kids we didn’t really understand this fully, however we knew it because whenever a handful of us gathered together, it was more often than not somebody was related to somebody else. That’s just the way it was, and the way it remains today.

I have seen studies on this migration pattern, but nothing that links albanism. My observations as a kid could be totally off base, perhaps I was just more impressionable and aware then. That could certainly be the case. If anyone knows of any studies on the rates and distribution of albinism in the US, I would love to hear about them.

“White Flight” gained momentum in Detroit after the riots in 1968. Before this Detroit was one of the most influential, and affluent cities in the world. Being home to the world’s largest corporation, and the engine of an entire economy, will do this. Entire communities of wealthy investors built lavish brick mansions and accumulated wealth nearly unheard of today. After the riots Detroit grew outward at a steady pace as the rich and landed moved to the comfort and security of the suburbs. This flight continued well into the 80′s exacerbated by the economic downturn of the auto industry and the collapse of the local economy as people left.

But why are the buildings still standing? Simply put, they are brick structures. And brick is nearly impossible for an amateur arsonist to burn. Thousands upon thousands of homes have been abandoned in Detroit (and Flint) since the late 60′s. Many of these houses were built of wood, and burned to the ground. The wealthiest homes were built from brick, and thus still stand today.

So why doesn’t the city take these houses down? Again, simply put, it’s expensive. The local government does not demolish homes unless they are building something new to replace them. In response communities began to rid themselves of blight by taking the deconstruction into their own hands. The city in response, naturally allows this to happen. They call it a “controlled burn” or something like that. Basically communities get sick of a building and set it on fire. The fire department shows up and clears the area. They make no attempt to stop the burning, they are only there to ensure that the structure burns completely to the ground, thus making the remaining demolition as effortless and economical as possible.

Again, brick buildings cannot be burned in this manner. So they sit there today, in all of their dilapidated glory. There is even a special night of self absolvent behavior called, “Devils Night”. If you read the wikipedia article on this night it doesn’t really mention it’s cultural importance. Most people consider it a night of unchecked vandalism, which in many ways it has become, however it is descendant from a much needed response to urban decay.

If you are thinking to yourself that all of this is irresponsible, from a community standpoint, you would be mistaken. Abandoned buildings are not considered blight for a community like Detroit simply because of the way they look, or their effect on home value or anything like that. Abandoned buildings are dangerous. They are filled with broken glass, garbage, and home to birds and other rodents. They breed disease. As kids we played in abandoned buildings quite regularly, what kid wouldn’t? No parent or community wants their kids anywhere near these buildings, so eventually they take the responsibility into their own hands.

Some of the buildings in these photos at 100abondoned houses are quite iconic. They are reminders of a past that went horribly wrong for what can be considered many of the right reasons. The wealthy fractions of our society will continue to move and lay waste in this way. It is up to the rest of us to make the best use of what is left, and work to ensure that the past does not relive itself in such a lopsided manner.

I have since learned that quite probably the answer to the meaning of today, is likely to be tomorrow, or perhaps yesterday, or even another day entirely. Each and every moment provides a link to the next one in the model of our days that exists in our mind. We are free to reposition ourselves at any point along the thread that weaves incessantly throughout our conscious lives. We also have the unique ability to predictively weave forward. These are the ways that we can envision the future or conjure up the past.

Thread. I alight from the city to the subway and am struck by tranquility. An elderly woman, gray and frail sits to my left (I am standing) and computes stacks of equations steadily with a 70′s era calculator in one hand and a pencil in the other. Each hand a tool. Now I am not a mathematician but among her elegantly penciled equations were many predictable numbers followed by k’s (like 64k), variables with names like ‘cycles’ and ‘Q’, and a plethora of Greek looking things. The kind of math still found at the base of all modern computing things.

This is the conjury. For a moment I am beside my mother as she works effortlessly amid the silence at the perimeter of one of her baby quilts. No soundtrack required. Patterns blossom from agreed upon forms and merge into larger, more vibrant patterns and ideas. It’s the thread and the groove that holds it all together, provides for the meaning and in this case, the comfort.

Train Tracks. The first computers were made of a thick thread, and bits were represented by knots. The Incas were supremely clever folks and used these computers for taxation and commercial purposes. Interestingly enough they did not use the weaving technology at the core of the machines to weave textiles. They probably preferred the hand-made.

Train tracks and Threads. Watching this mathematrix on the subway. She dresses like a school marme, but then again so do engineers and scientists. The lights flicker for electricity like flame for air and I am reminded that one of the first computer programmers was a woman, Lady Ada. It would be worth our while to digress: Lady Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron. She was a mathematician and she programmed the Babbage looms with punch cards in the early part of the 19th century. She is credited with the first modern computer ‘program’ and had many prescient visions about computing. There is a computer language named in her honor, it’s now called ‘ADA 95′.

Now we are getting somewhere. The dashed line that binds New York to New Jersey zips by and now I am convinced that Lady Ada is next to me, and I don’t dare disturb her. Nor would I let anyone else. Think of all the things that rely on electricity, or oil. Without Lady Ada’s calculator and pencil drumming away day after day in the underbelly of almost every single modern technology we posses; those possessions cease to function. Without the ability to supply answers, they crash internally and the force from the contained implosion bursts outward. Looms used to crash all the time, and were extremely dangerous to be around for that reason.

I alight to the city from the subway and all around I am immediately surrounded by kente-cloth, Banana Republic-cloth, sari-cloth, Nike-cloth and so on. Computers are not descended from clothes of course, nor is the opposite true, but like humans and apes, there is common ancestry. And now I can begin to see how this collision and combining of patterns can possibly speak the patois of today. Of course if you are the type who wears t-shirts with funny sayings or logos, then you already understood all this didn’t you?