INTO THE GLOAMING.

By Peter M. DeLorenzo

Detroit. Meta Caroline Orred was an English author and poet who published Poems in 1874. In it was the phrase In the Gloaming, which was then popularized by a song using the same phrase, in 1877. Why is it an appropriate subject for today?

The gloaming refers to the gathering dusk, the in-between hour before the looming darkness penetrates our soul and we’re summoned into a different dimension. To some, it means a sense of foreboding, an apprehension of what’s to come, a fear of the unknown and the unimaginable. To others, it offers a colorful landscape ripe for magical thinking, an opportunity to foster new dreams and fuel unbridled creativity. 

There’s a reason why photographers refer to this aura of color between the fading light and the gathering darkness as “magic hour,” because it’s here where the soul of the subject - its true essence - comes alive.

We have arrived at the gloaming as both an industry and a nation. The pandemic has created havoc and caused death around the globe, and we are on the precipice of something entirely different than what has come before. The tension hanging in the air is palpable. Routines have been disrupted, lives have been altered, and the gathering darkness is setting the table for the unknown and the unimaginable. And if we allow ourselves to go down that road, things could very easily play out on the darker side of the equation.

But I prefer to look at things differently. Yes, the road is going to get much tougher before it even thinks about getting smoother, and we as a society are in for a brutal stretch of fits and starts, unwelcome setbacks and ever-burgeoning challenges. But then again, the opportunities to rethink, remake, reimagine and rejuvenate seem boundless at this juncture.

The fact that Ford and GM were featured on 60 Minutes this week responding emphatically and convincingly to a critical societal need was a demonstrable sign that the opportunities to be creative and responsive are right in front of us. That manufacturing expertise and creativity will not only be in high demand going forward, but even more critical than it ever has been before. 

To some of the unenlightened – basically the two coasts and other enclaves that like to refer to these parts as the “flyover” states – the speed at which these two American manufacturing stalwarts responded was almost shocking. You could almost hear the chatter over the airwaves, as in, “Wait a minute, I thought we were talking about the Ice Age in Detroit? Weren’t those companies left for dead and didn’t they long ago cede the ‘genius’ mantle to Tesla and Silicon Valley?” Or something like that. When the chips are down, however, it’s funny how serious manufacturing expertise becomes relevant when the need is urgent and mission critical.

The same can be said for the furious Manhattan Project-level pursuit that is underway in the medical community right now. Thousands of scientists from multiple disciplines are hot on the trail of this virus right now. The search is on for the Why? How? What? When? of it all in order to come up with a vaccine as soon as is safely possible.

These two disparate factions of society are not brooding over the looming darkness, because there’s just no time for that kind of limited thinking. There’s no time for the negative “what ifs” or the doomsday scenarios. Instead, the emphasis is on ”what do we need and how soon do we need it?” This is flat-out creativity under intense pressure and the negatives are meaningless.

I am quite certain that there is going to be a nasty shakeout in the automobile business, but I am also quite certain that the players who see opportunities for creativity in the dimension between the fading light and the gathering darkness will be the ones that will emerge on the other side of this stronger, leaner and with a whole new set of capabilities.

So as the automobile business, the medical community and we as a society rush headlong into the gloaming, I am optimistic that creativity, vision, and a new way of looking at things and the world we live in are going to prevail.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.