Grateful Blog: Day 62: I was just talking to a friend a minute ago when I realized I had 11 minutes to get my blog done. That’s how it works sometimes. It reminded me of this time I was in Austin, dancing with a young lady at the Continental Club and while doing so she grabbed y hat off my hat, and shortly thereafter disappeared. I spend the next frantic 20 minutes searching for her before we were reunited…me and my hat that is. InTexas, you can get life in prison or shot for less. A cowboy hat is something sort of Holy there…but that’s Texasfor you. It’s a 181 contradictions wrapped into one: A decidedly Red state with a love of poet singer-songwriters and a state of mind as much as a state that borders Mexico.
Today is the 176th anniversary of the Texas Independence Day. It’s serious business down there. They still talk of secession (from THESE Unites States) while sending an ever madding succession of their own to try to run the county. Think LBJ. George HW Bush. Bush the 2nd (the ‘Shrub’) and Rick Perry. Yeah, it’s a contradiction. I get it. When I think of Texas I think of wide open spaces, Austin, good barbeque, poet singer-songwriters, the Alamo, San Antonio, the hill country, Kerrville, 108 degree heat, Luckenbach and caliche (limestone) dust…there’s a thousand other things that are associated with Texas (feel free to name your own) but those are mine.
The thing that strikes me the most however is a woman I once met who’d recently moved to the Pacific Northwest from Texas. She said ‘When I first moved toTexasI saw all the people who went out of their way to display theTexas flag in some sort of display of state pride. At first I thought it was obnoxious, after all, who can you think of that you know that regularly displays their state flag??’ I thought about it awhile and understood what she was saying and I said ‘well no one I can think of in Oregon, Washington or any other state I know of’ and she said ‘Exactly!, that’s what’s so SPECIAL about it, because people who live there REALLY love Texas.’
It took me a while to realize but I finally GOT it. What’s wrong with people having pride in the state they live in? Nothing! And so I finally understood what was so SPECIAL about Texas, it was the people, and the passion they felt about the place they were from (or lived in). So here’s a Happy Independence Day! to all me friends in (and from) inTexas.
All I’ve got to say, that really matters to me tonight, is that I’m Grateful that the spirit of Texas lives on in the hearts and minds of its people, that they still have kick-ass barbeque, wide open spaces, the Alamo, the hill country, Kerrville, 108 degree heat, Luckenbach and that they still have a soft spot for poet singer-songwriters…
Amen…
Oh and one last thing: Bob Wills is STILL the King! Awwww Haw!!!
‘The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart ofTexas’…
