Good stuff. Texas history, Texas geology, Texas regions and Texas pride. You know you are a real Texan when you start counting the generations your people have been here. And we all do it. I call it running through our bona fides. So, I'll throw a little sliver of my bona fides out there.
I discovered I have Texas ancestors living under all six flags of Texas. When on a walking tour of New Orleans a few years back, we stood beneath a plaque with the names of those who fought under Spain to support the American Revolution by blockading the Mississippi so England could not supply itself and Americans could, which is very interesting in and of itself. I saw my ancestors' names on that plaque.
I grew up in the Hill Country when it was still the best-kept secret in the world and Austin was still the Austin of legend. Now, it feels like the Hill Country is a made-up place for tourists. I miss my rural community where either I was kin to pretty much everyone I encountered or was so familiar with them we might as well have been kin.This experience provided a very different kind of mindset which, to this day, makes me feel off-balance and slightly irritated with the fungible people I encounter here in the DFW suburbs. I have been asked when I moved to Texas.
I say, I didn't move here. I was born here. And they look at me like they don't believe me. But, it doesn't matter because I'll probably never cross paths with them again. And that is the strangest thing about leaving rural Texas - not seeing and interacting with the same people on a daily basis.
Rural Texans... we're a thriving breed, where ever we are.
It's so important we share our "rural" selves with whatever communities we find ourselves in. Anchoring this attitude of independence and community support in my life is the way I get to share the spirit of my special part of Texas... The Free State of Stonewall (County)
Thank you again, James for your beautiful writing about our beloved Texas. 🤠
- It makes me think of my home, my family, and my roots here in East Tennessee and how I love them.
- It also makes me want to read Lonesome Dove again (you'll remember that Gus McRae was an East Tennessean after all!).
- I think so much of loving place is learning to love the Kingdom in it while knowing this place is somehow both temporary and eternal. That tension I think is what makes good writing about place ache and it's one that is strangely comfortable to Southerners (at least in my experience).
Good stuff. Texas history, Texas geology, Texas regions and Texas pride. You know you are a real Texan when you start counting the generations your people have been here. And we all do it. I call it running through our bona fides. So, I'll throw a little sliver of my bona fides out there.
I discovered I have Texas ancestors living under all six flags of Texas. When on a walking tour of New Orleans a few years back, we stood beneath a plaque with the names of those who fought under Spain to support the American Revolution by blockading the Mississippi so England could not supply itself and Americans could, which is very interesting in and of itself. I saw my ancestors' names on that plaque.
I grew up in the Hill Country when it was still the best-kept secret in the world and Austin was still the Austin of legend. Now, it feels like the Hill Country is a made-up place for tourists. I miss my rural community where either I was kin to pretty much everyone I encountered or was so familiar with them we might as well have been kin.This experience provided a very different kind of mindset which, to this day, makes me feel off-balance and slightly irritated with the fungible people I encounter here in the DFW suburbs. I have been asked when I moved to Texas.
I say, I didn't move here. I was born here. And they look at me like they don't believe me. But, it doesn't matter because I'll probably never cross paths with them again. And that is the strangest thing about leaving rural Texas - not seeing and interacting with the same people on a daily basis.
Thank you for helping an “outsider” understand!
Rural Texans... we're a thriving breed, where ever we are.
It's so important we share our "rural" selves with whatever communities we find ourselves in. Anchoring this attitude of independence and community support in my life is the way I get to share the spirit of my special part of Texas... The Free State of Stonewall (County)
Thank you again, James for your beautiful writing about our beloved Texas. 🤠
I loved this James:
- It makes me think of my home, my family, and my roots here in East Tennessee and how I love them.
- It also makes me want to read Lonesome Dove again (you'll remember that Gus McRae was an East Tennessean after all!).
- I think so much of loving place is learning to love the Kingdom in it while knowing this place is somehow both temporary and eternal. That tension I think is what makes good writing about place ache and it's one that is strangely comfortable to Southerners (at least in my experience).