Everyday Life in Middletown
Directive: January-February 2019
Muncie
Directions: This directive asks you to share your thoughts and feelings about Muncie, the town most of you live in and the town at the center of the Everyday Life in Middletown project.
Feel free to use your creativity in expressing your thoughts and feelings about Muncie. You can write this out as an essay or a set of disjointed observations, or any other way you like. You do not need to answer the questions below in order (though you may do so if you wish). But do try to address all of the questions, in one way or another, in your response.
The main question we want you to address is: What do you think and feel about Muncie?
Write as little or as much as you like. A good guideline for length would be the average length of your day diaries for us.
As with your diaries, your directive entries will be published anonymously in our on-line archive. While we will not publish your name or any personal information, it is up to you to decide how much or how little about yourself you want to reveal in your writing and to filter out personal information accordingly. As with the diaries, we will review your directives for personal information and contact you if we have questions or concerns.
Optional: Take a photograph that you think typifies Muncie in some way, and send it along with your directive response.
Please return your answer to us by Feb. 12.
Questions to address in your answer:
1. How long have you lived here? If you were not born here, indicate where you came from and why.
I’ve lived in Muncie my entire life, born at Ball Hospital and now live on the north side. I did spend 4 years of college “away,” but only in Upland where I attended Taylor University.
2. Are you happy with where you live? Do you feel like you belong?
I do feel happy here and I do feel like I belong. Although I realize that being here my whole life, I have nothing else to compare this to. I have traveled a lot, and while I like visiting bigger cities, I have never felt the desire to live in one. Muncie seems to be a good size for my family and me. We can get to know the community but there are still enough people where you can run into people you don’t know every day.
I have a lot of family that still live in this community and it feels like home in a lot of ways. I am comfortable here.
3. Do you expect to stay here for long? What are or will be some of the considerations in deciding how long you stay here?
I could see myself staying in Muncie long term. As a pastor, I think longevity in a community is something that only increases your chance to make a difference in people’s lives. I suppose I’ll stay here until God calls me elsewhere or I feel like a tourist in this town.
4. How would you describe Muncie to someone who has never been here? What are its most distinctive characteristics?
Muncie is a place with largely no identity right now. It’s a blue-collar town with white-collar jobs keeping the lights on. It’s a difficult place in a lot of ways, but also full of potential. It’s a place where people can be real and problems are real, but that gives us all a chance to work to make a difference.
I have also often described Muncie as (at least) three distinct cities. North of the (downtown) tracks, south of the tracks, and Ball State. Sometimes I see those dividing lines being broken down in powerful ways, but that separation seems to be a hard bell to unring.
5. Do you think the ways other people think about Muncie are the same ways you think about it? How do you your thoughts and feelings about Muncie differ from its public image (from media or word-of-mouth around the state and beyond)?
Many people I know seem to hold a pretty negative view of Muncie and a “I can’t wait to get out of here” mentality. Sometimes I see their point. Sometimes I think any place is what you make of it. There is plenty of negative here. You don’t have to look very hard. Drug problems, economy, corruption in politics, etc. Sometimes there also seems to be a very “lukewarm” view of life here… no passion from a lot of people. I have to wonder if that is unique to this city, or if that is something you will find wherever you go.
6. What are your feelings about Muncie’s future? What are your hopes for Muncie? How do you expect Muncie will fare in the years ahead? What changes do you expect?
I am very interested in what Muncie will become. Often I hold little hope and it can be too easy to see this city as a “last one out turn off the lights” type of a place. I suppose Ball State and the hospital will always help keep our head above water. But, it’s hard to have a lot of hope when I see so many great, young families leave this area for better jobs. Church communities, especially, can seem pretty transient.
But I also see a lot of great initiatives happening here. I see the 8/12 coalition and many great ministries and not-for-profits doing some good work. I see churches and other groups working toward justice, and not just charity. I see a city that has some hidden gyms like the cardinal greenway and some great green spaces.
So I do have hope for the city. I choose to have hope for the city. It’s not always easy, but I choose to do it. And I see it as my job to live into that hope and help, in some small way, create a better city where there is peace and joy among the people.