David Erik Nelson: In Michigan: a Primer, a Travelogue

Gentle reader, I am going to hop on the bandwagon and recommend you read local author, David Erik Nelson's In Michigan: a Primer, a Travelogue. The essay is a reflection on Michigan Thanksgiving and Michigan culture from an outsider's perspective. In it, Nelson describes traveling to visit his wife's family in Michigan's northern Hinterlands. It covers a variety of Michigan experiences: eating deer hearts, up north bars, and ofcourse, driving:

It's a lot of driving, but not by Michigan standards. In Michigan, no amount of driving is too much driving, nor any distance too short to drive. In Michigan, nothing is close enough to walk to, even when it is within eye shot. In Michigan you might drive to the place you already are, in order to pick up the car and go back to where you never left. You can do that, in Michigan, even though the roads are crap and the legislature refuses to pay to fix them, because Michigan.

Nelson's perspective on Thanksgiving in Michigan is a wonderful lense through which to view our state and our culture. If you have a few moments to yourself this holiday, read In Michigan: a Primer, a Travelogue, you will not regret it.