Texas Wants You Anyway

My countryman reminded me of something today:

-Watch Video.

There’s a swath of new arrivals to Texas. In the above video Mr. Lovett’s words brought to mind, a newbie from a post on nextdoor.com sharing a solution to Governor Abbot’s lifting of the mask mandate namely how dumb she thought we all were for not acting reacting outraged like her. 

It bothered me.

While the post had since been removed, her words where something along the lines of tell your stupid Governor. Nextdoor.com is a virtual community that’s geographically tied to where the user physically lives, making Governor Abbot her Governor too.

I realize, relocation in and of itself, is stressful; there’s certainly a learning curve, when arriving to a new place. I think it’s long past time to speak to our new neighbors, the fresh arrivals to this special place, the green Texans.

A common habit outsider (people from other places) developed is, describing our people as nice; this is an effect of our nature as observed by a vast number of non-Texans, so as to make it a common theme in outside reports of us. People visit go home and say we’re nice- that’s fine, we are (after a fashion), it doesn’t bother us the way things appear to bother other peoples; mostly it’s telling, that others don’t actually understand us. Newcomers, should know “nice” isn’t as close to wrong as it is not very right.

While not far from truth, nice, isn’t the story of Texans.

I will say, we come off as nice. Those unaccustomed to life, ever-present by true kindness; I’ve gathered that outsiders are confused by this. Elsewhere such things as kind, come largely, in small portions. Occurrence at an easily digested rate.

Most people are thrown-off, in the attempt of inhabiting this organism, newcomers find themselves in.

I’m uncertain the reasons for this – let’s call it unaccustomed to kindness- is it the same everywhere else?

I do know this place is special.

To all you newcomers I’ll say this: Welcome to Texas! Y’all had an inkling to the special difference that is Texas and what’s Texan, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. If you came to save money, you’ll soon realize the error of that judgment, but there’s a bit of a honeymoon to figure out the numbers and buying time’s a pretty neat trick.

It astonishes me the rarity and scarcity, people I meant that I’d actually describe as kind inhabit the rest of… well, most everywhere, anywhere that’s not here, … –

that I’ve ever been. The realization that most of the world doesn’t know the life and breath of the truly kind isn’t pleasant.

Those unaccustomed to this presence, of true kindness, on such a large scale, as is found here, can mistake us for nice people. I’m a bit concerned, those migrating here during a global pandemic, my miss-use what they consider as nice, and face the backlash of treating us that way.

Nice doesn’t do much but translate as disingenuous, I’d like for the record to say, that’s not what’s special about us.

We can be nice; nicer than anyone you’ve ever met, anywhere. Our hospitality and enthusiasm for our fellow traveler is second to none. If it were a competition, we’d win all the nice games. We’d sweep all the top prizes, and in the end, you’d have to create a new category. This new category, for the lack of a better more accurate term, could be called nothing other than Texan.

You should know, you’ll never beat a born-and-raised Texan at the Texas game, and no one else is in the league. None of which matters ‘cause we’d never play the nice game, and have no reason to play the Texas Game, to begin with. Truth be told, you probably don’t want us to be nice- not the way other people are nice; or aren’t. I don’t really know. I only know of the interchangeable ambiguity the concepts have outside Texas.

We’re nice. We aren’t nice. We’re other than and inclusive of nice. Individually sure, as a rule maybe, from time to time, or as I’ve said after-a-fashion- then yes; we’re nice. We all strive to better ourselves and our surroundings, the effect of which leads outsiders to conclude and make note of nice as a characteristic of our people. As far as descriptive generalizations go, the astonishing kindness of Texans and Texas, is mistaken as nice.

It isn’t nice to let uninformed foreigners go about their day-to-day when you know by their verbal equity and cultural misappropriation that their assimilation isn’t going well or comfortably and not help. Well, not nice to them.

Because of the pandemic, some of the transplants have been acting out, in rather entertaining ways. We generally find this funny, but while mostly silent, the laughter has been at your expense. Like I said not nice. Not nice for you, or those we’re laughing at, but it is nice for us, and because of the pandemic, few of us have spoken up and said anything, because amusement’s been in short supply.

I’m only saying- well writing- something now because, we’ll be seeing each other soon, and when we’re all out in the open again. Because of Lyle’s words, I thought I’d lend a hand by telling you can’t keep acting the way you have. Well, you can; you can act however you want. No one really gives a shit. Just consider it a warning, or a tip. If you want anyone to care about anything coming from your mouth, pretty much ever.

Some of y’all are great, most I’d even say. But then there’s those, that aren’t great. like the woman on Nextdoor.com, who was unaware of how representation works, and them that’s like her. I’m sure you’re great people and the nonsense you’ve been carrying on with is just due to growing pains. And y’all know who you are. You’ll get over it in time, but in the mean-time you should know; no one cares about your self-important public temper tantrums and simplistic diatribe. These types of displays aren’t unlike what one would expect from a toddler and are treated as such.

Watching grown adults act like children has been the only quality entertainment any of us could rely on for the last year. But like the woman on nextdoor.com, I know these displays are just assimilation issues that will pass with time. Still, you’ve probably been here close to a year and still don’t quite fit. That’s ‘cause you don’t understand a few things that are very important; the difference is in the details. This place and the people who made it a better place to be than the one you came from are not like you, at least as you’ve been so far. It might help you to know some of these differences.

First: We don’t do Governmental group thought communal ideological chaos.

We prescribe to the you do you way of things.

You do you, I’ll do me and only when me doing me and you doing you, are no longer mutually exclusive then we’ll congress- but that’s only when it’s truly necessary and usually its not. The large majority of things we worry about don’t happen, and the futility of these pointless concerns are only known- if ever- in time. For example: You can wear a mask if you like, or not if you don’t, or if you’re going somewhere that wants you to wear a mask then they’ll let you know.

The over-reach of government is a slippery slope. Government is by its very nature an infringement of liberty through restriction of rights- We try to flatten that obstacle as often and with as much fervor as we can muster.

Second: You should all understand our position on weapons. We like shooting guns- you wanna really know what really makes Texas the greatest country in the world- try telling one of us, it’s the government’s job to restrict our ability to pursue frivolous things like life- if we engaged in the conversation at all it wouldn’t be for long. Access to weaponry and the ability to arm yourself properly and at will is beyond the realm of want and is quite truly necessary.

For example, about 30 minutes from where I am right now, one random evening, not long ago, a woman- in the space from her car to her front door- was carried away and eaten by wild pigs. The massive kind of food animal we get bacon from, with Houston street survival and skills, and the wits to not only roam freely but stay that way; each larger than your average person. Let that sit with you for a while. So why guns? For one thing, sometimes the food fights back.

You want our guns- you can try and pry them from our cold dead hands. This is less a lifestyle, value, or ideology than it is a principal; as in to survive, equally as principal to life as food water and oxygen.

Wild pigs aside, In the event of a long and sustained communications breakdown, the dude on the well-appointed military base doesn’t get to make my rules for me. The only way I’m decided for is when I’m unable or unwilling to decide for myself; in such a case, the one left standing then wins the responsibility to do the deciding. In order to assure the ability to hold ones own, under such dire circumstance, the ability to access proper armament and technologies cannot be restricted to one while permissible to another, be they groups or individuals.

No one’s saying life is fair, it’s assuredly not even close to fair, but restricting my access while another is armed freely is at the very least a gross inability to allow for oversight. If weapons are criminal, only criminals will have them. And when criminals come with weapons, or the food animals are hunting you they won’t wait for your permission, a phone tree, or council approval, they’ll just come. We know this instinctively, perhaps you should too.

So you do you, I’ll do me, and should those ideologies interfere, there is good news.

-I won’t be the one calling a hard working intelligent handy-capable hero type dude (silly as he is) an idiot in an open forum for thinking he’s mandated what I do with my face long enough. – Outsiders can call this nice- but compared to the person who publicly besmirches such a man, everyone’s nice.