I went back to Ohio
but the city was gone.
i visited my ma this week back in Ohio, where she continues to make her home. a few thoughts on the place.
on my mother’s home: as my mom has aged, her collection of tchotkes has grown. at this point she has so many little artsy pieces of detritus that there is no longer any room for them. so she has begun piling them together in a way. now an old disused fountain is full of fake chinese figurines. a flower pot she likes has been planted with little figurines and fake flowers. a bowl is filled with more artsy glass objects. it’s overwhelming, and yet at least it’s creative.
my mom talked alot about getting older and eventually selling her place and moving to a smaller apartment. i asked what she would do with all her things. she shocked me telling me she’s really not that attached to many of them and she would just get rid of them when she had to. i was impressed, but then i thought, well then why did you have to have these things in the first place?
on cleveland: every visit i make, there is less and less to cleveland proper. everything in the city is shutting down. and though the suburbs continue to survive, not even they thrive like they used to. my mom used to be a staunch supporter of cleveland and when i was younger constantly tried to convince me to live there claiming it was a growing city. now she says she can’t imagine how any parent would want their child to remain in cleveland after school as it has very little to offer.
on midwestern weather: it’s been a long time since i’ve been to the midwest in summer. i remembered the warmth and the humidity. what i forgot was that the sky is never really blue. when there’s not a white haze dulling the sky, there are clouds. there’s never a clear blue sky like there is in the west. i immediately missed that.