Squidbits

Texas is an obsession......

I finished reading "Travels with Charley - In Search of America" by John Steinbeck over the weekend.  Up until page 227 I had really enjoyed the book, but on that page something changed.  That something were the words:  "......I knew sooner or later I would have to have a go at Texas, and I dreaded it."  Like flipping a light switch, my interest was at the full "on" position.  I read each word so quickly because I just couldn't wait to read what Steinbeck had to say about my home state.

What I found?

I found he was DEAD ON.  And not only that, he was dead on in such a truthful and elegant way it made my heart soar even more with Texan pride than before.  People have often asked me why Texans take so much pride in being from Texas.  At times I have fumbled around for the words, but when you get down to it, Steinbeck said it best:  "Texas is a state of mind, but I think it is more than that.  It is a mystique closely approximating a religion."  On my travels when I meet someone from Texas there is that instant connection - they GET ME.  They get that I love being outdoors; they get that I love the city; they get that I can say y'all and still feel comfortable talking to any CEO out there; they get that in many Texans I know, the energy of the state just isn't in the oil found beneath the surface but in the people themselves.  Texas is larger than life - bigger state, bigger bands, bigger hair, bigger ego.  This will probably offend those friends not from Texas, but Texans are probably the most friendly and bighearted people I know.

Returning after being out of state always brings a calmness back to me:  ahhhhh.  I am back home, back in the paradox that is Texas, where a millionaire will wear a bolo tie and cowboy boots with his suit to a symphony concert rather than a tux.  When I was a kid, I used to cry with happiness while singing "Texas Our Texas" when crossing the border back into the Lone Star State. (I'm not kidding here).

So, if you've never been to Texas, or you've met a Texan and don't quite understand them, I urge you to read the 5th to last chapter of Steinbeck's book.  "Texas is a state of mind.  Texas is an obsession."

Photos: 

Top:  What good Texas boys wouldn't love football and want to grow up to be a cowboy?  My brothers Mark and Nick, respectivley circa 1984.

Middle:  That's me 3rd from the right in the front row in 1990.  Who says band geeks can't have fun ;-)

Bottom:  I bleed burnt orange and have for years.  My great friend Traci Trotti (left) and me on the right.  Senior year in high school - 1991.

"Are you one of the good guys?"

I finished reading Cormac McCarthy's book The Road on my Africa trip.  The last 8 pages were some of the most heart wrenching I have ever read.  Set in a time where the Earth is literally dying, it tells the story of a nameless man and his young son, traveling a road to the coast in the search of others like them.  Others who still carry the fire of what is good and right and just, which admittedly is nearly impossible to find on their journey.

All of McCarthy's books are dark.  That darkness in The Road grabs you in a full bear hug and will not let you go, even through small triumphs of the traveling pair.  But it is the boy and his father's ferocious love for each other that keeps you turning the pages, leaving you in the end simultaneously weeping and uplifted.  It is undoubtedly some of the best fiction I have read in a very long time.