Government of the numbers, by the numbers, for the numbers

This play on President Lincoln's phrase about government of the people, by the people, and for the people can be illustrated from this Tuesday late morning photo outside of the offices for the secretary of state in rural Michigan, formerly a retail outlet in a 1970s-era indoor shopping mall that went out of business and has been leased for this organ of state record-keeping and fee collection since the late 1980s or so in this location. Around that time the functions of voter registration were merged with motor vehicle administration (the so-called motor-voter law) in order to keep a person's address up to date for both purposes.

"no photos or electronic recording allowed inside" the door sign says, 3/2019

There is a self-serve kiosk in the foreground for some routine transactions, but updating a driver's license photo, transferring the title of property, and other tasks must be done in person. Many times the business can be handled via the online portal or with the postal service, too. The sign near the floor at bottom left in large letters says that once per week there are evening hours available for those who are unable to come during ordinary business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Inside the office are three rows of 8 or 10 chairs so that a person can take a number from the dispenser at the doorway and keep track of how many customers are waiting ahead of one's own turn. There is a ceiling mounted video display that alternates between announcements of services offered, new state requirements, weather, sports, and news headlines. For people who did not bring their own reading material or who are content to stare at their phone screens, this ceiling mounted screen seems to occupy their attention.

Seldom is the administration of motor vehicles in the news headlines, although voting rights regularly crops up due to the extreme manipulation of voting precinct boundaries (Gerrymandering). There are also ongoing efforts to make vote-by-mail and deployed armed-forces voting more convenient and secure. On balance, however, most residents with voting eligibility and those who operate some form of motorized vehicle do seem content with the system of keeping records in order, up-to-date, and paying no more or no less than they owe. Perhaps the bureaucratic organism of 100 or 200 years ago would be amazed at the present standard of practice, thanks to telecommunication and vast record-keeping, searching, and interpreting data.

Native Americans - online in the state of Michigan

Bicycling on one of the streets in Traverse City, the logo on one of the SUVs parked on the side displayed the logo for the Grand Traverse Band of Indians. Census-wise there are relatively few who classify themselves as Native Americans or Pacific Islanders in the USA (less than 1%, although specific counties will have concentrations; for example in Oklahoma, New Mexico, or Arizona). So except for casino billboards on the highways, airwaves, and Internet there is relatively little visual presence of Indian persons, property (like the truck parked on the street), business products and services, or issues important to Native people.

In a word, for people living around the state of Michigan, at least in the southern, most populated parts of the lower peninsula, the subject of Native Americans can be summed up with the word ignorance; sheer lack of experiences, first-person connections, public discourse and news media, textbook presence and so on.

 [caption: screenshot taken from webpage - URL at top left of the image]

See also album of images on this subject at https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/albums/72157673270576798

Early July scene mid-week along highway M-115 in Cadillac, Michigan at William Mitchell State Park.

To join the others under the trees and walking distance from the two lakes that straddle the isthmus most people buy, borrow, or rent a camping trailer or RV (recreation vehicle). The section reserved for tenters (people sleeping under nylon or canvas) is relatively small and hard to see by comparison to the wheeled, portable living spaces shown here. The convenience of having a familiar place to sleep, cook, and take care of some personal grooming gives campers reason to haul their trailer north from time to time on the weekend or for whole weeks at a time. It is hard to beat the feeling of certainty and security with light, heat, water and electricity all in one place, especially when the outdoors is less than glorious. And yet there is the view that your means will affect your ends; that is, the manner in which you conduct your life affects the kinds of things that are visible or audible in your experience. By analogy and using the "life is a journey" metaphor, the person traveling on foot v. noisy motorbike v. biplane v. jumbo jet will all have different experiences of a place. So too of camping - the more gear that separates you from the elements, the less of those textures and rhythms will you perceive. Thus to live in or a few steps away from a camper which is neatly parked next to other ones is bound to be a different experience to living out of a tent with few tenters nearby.

Golf and tennis? Forest succession and water tables? - it's a matter of time horizon

Looking toward the outdoor seating of the clubhouse at the golf and tennis country club with a view of the long narrow Lake Leelanau, there is a certain feeling of contrast between the business of leisure sport on carefully tended grounds and the therapeutic separation from one's working routines on the one hand, and the rhythms and structures that organize the rest of the plants and animals that share these spaces on land and water. The humans live one golf or tennis season to the next, concerned with providing a level of service and model for business that keeps things solvent from one generation of owners and members to the next. But in the much longer sweep of time, in geological or glacial age time frame of 10,000 years, the daily business decisions and the weekly grooming of grounds and buildings have little impact on the shape of the land and the flow of water, the action of freeze-thaw cycles and the prevailing pattern of winds that deposit the next generation of seed in shade or sun, leading to another cycle of birth and decay. And so, when looking at the pleasing care of the grass and pavement, as well as savoring what is offered on the menu, it is salutatory to zoom out to a wider point of reference and see that the life cycle of the trees and the generations of fish and frogs operate by entirely different directions, all the while intersecting the concerns of the people who keep the golf and tennis facilities in tip-top shape each outdoor season.

mass migration on Memorial Day 3-day weekend

The busiest roadways in USA are the end of May (the northbound stream of cars on M-115 near Cadillac on Friday about 2:30 p.m. pictured here) for the 3 day weekend of Memorial Day; the traditional end of summer vacation season on the 3 day weekend of Labor Day (itself the first Monday of September; and the 4 day weekend of Thanksgiving (3rd Thursday) in November.
The urge to spend some happy hours among those one knows best, whether relatives or friends or both, drives people to their cars. For most people the roadways are the single biggest risk factor in their lives. And being more heavily trafficked on the start and the end of the holiday weekends, the danger is that much higher. In the recent decade or two the state police in Michigan, together with volunteers, have offered coffee at the highway rest areas to help ward off drowsiness or at least to demonstrate to those stopping that the problem is worthy of care. This widely dispersed pattern of social bonds comes from the ease of transportation, personal or by commercial services of rail, ferry and motor coach. So for the past 150 or more years, to pack up and visit others for a weekend has not been out of the ordinary. But in the grand scheme of human experience, it is not the norm, either. It would be interesting to peer into each of the cars in this stream to know what fills the compressed social space: silence, audio book or music or talk radio, conversation, cellphone or other mobile devices, print materials occupying the minds of those aboard? Multiplied across all the highways filling up in the afternoon of the holiday, the sum total of engagements is likely staggering.