Day 30--Living the UP Dream

One of the first things I noticed when we came to the UP for the first time were the forests of regenerating aspen trees.  Did you know that the Quaking Aspen tree is the largest living organism on the planet?  Aspens can grow by seeds, but many places they grow underground, sending up more and more shoots, until they become like the largest one discovered so far, which covers over a hundred acres, and weighs over 13 million pounds.

Anyway, logging is a big industry up here, and used to be an even bigger industry.  Most of the original forests were clear cut at one time, which bothers a lot of people.  Other people can see the plus side.  These regenerating aspen trees are paradise for lots of game species, such as the Ruffed Grouse, White-tailed Deer, and the Snowshoe Hare, among others.  Not to mention, I think aspen groves have a beautiful ethereal quality.

Anyway, the reason I brought all this up is that I think it is representative of something big we see happening up here in the UP which is going to become the basis of how we are going to make a living here.

This may be a generalization, but I think there are two types of people who love the UP the best. One type are the real Yoopers, people who have spent their whole lives here, struggled and worked so hard and fought the elements and tamed them for those people who came after.  The came-afters are the people like Bob and me and many others, who come to the UP for many diverse reasons, to escape, to start over, to live and love the beauty and wildness and the God-given gift that is the Upper Peninsula.  We bring with us, perhaps, a different attitude and maybe some different skills as well.

Currently, many parts of the UP are depressed, financially.  The two biggest businesses of the past, logging and mining, no longer employ thousands of people. Many people struggle to make ends meet and many young people are moving elsewhere to find better careers.

 It seems that many of the people who make it here, both old and young, have created their own jobs from scratch. Many of these are service related, normal everyday jobs, like road construction, real estate, running a restaurant.  What makes them unique, and therefore successful is something more than just hard work.  I believe to make it in a self-employment type situation, you have to have the soul of an artist.  A man who cleared some property for us made sure to not clear away the patch of wild blueberries he discovered in the middle of the clearing.  A man who built us an outhouse put in a frosted glass window for light, log siding and pretty green shingles. Both men, I'm sure, found satisfaction in taking their project one step further than need be, to create something beautiful in an already beautiful setting.

Eighteen of TWENTY-THREE blueberries I picked today--pretty amazing, huh?

Creating something beautiful in an already beautiful setting.  Being inspired by the UP to create something unique, something that will bring pleasure and fulfillment to oneself and to others. Using one's God-given talents, whatever they may be, to enhance the lives of others.

That's what Living the UP Dream means to me.

What I would like to do is to showcase these talented artists. Like the man who makes the best berry pancakes I have ever tasted, and whose wife is the most generous hostess I have ever encountered in a restaurant.  I would like to find artists who create what they create the best, and help them to be discovered by the rest of the UP and the rest of the world, perhaps.

To do this, I'm going to start small.  I am going to create what I create first, and then expand from there, find others to join me.  Together I think we can generate something here, perhaps RE-generate something here, to show the world the big heart and soul of the UP, so that others can live the dream as well.

I think it's a good idea.  I hope you do, too.

This Wood Duck is indifferent to my ideas