It has often been said that people born and raised in the south are doomed to be “backwards“, without the benefit of a decent education or an entrée to the sophisticated enjoyments that the rest of the world has ready access to. I, personally, have found this to be true….tell someone you are from the south and they immediately assume you are ignorant and illiterate, a product of close inbreeding and likely illegitimate. Which isn’t the case at all. This is simply a case of being judged by a body of people who don’t personally know us and who also presume to act as an authority of appropriate behavior for all humanity. And what gives them the right to judge, by virtue of the location we choose to live our lives, what is acceptable and the norm?
Maybe it is because we in the south take pleasure in the simple things in life, the frolicking of a small, rambunctious puppy, the laughter of happy children or the delight of a family dinner, abundant with love and fellowship. Does it make us less worldly to take contentment in the simple act of walking barefoot through a shallow stream or taking a ride in the car through the mountains for the simple delight of viewing the changing color of the leaves that nature had wrought? Summers days filled with Bible School, Kool-Aid and bologna sandwiches? Does this make us dull and lacking? Picnics under the limbs of an ancient oak, or simply a stroll along a country lane, undemanding pursuits that both are, but rich in what is important, contentment and promise.
Being Southern is much more than where you live. It is being thankful with what God provides and telling him so every day. It is being joyful for the simple fact of being alive and not being constantly on the hunt for the material things that money will buy. If it is that I am uneducated and backwards, then so be it, I am happy.
2 comments:
I agree about the education being somewhat lacking,having had 4 children going through the school system (daughter & youngest is a Senior). But I think it is more because of the tax base and not because of the lack of worthy teachers. It is also because parents have slackened up on their children, whether it be establishing good study habits or even school attendance. But, here again, that is nationwide, not just here in the south. Truthfully, if parents do not instill a love of learning in their offspring, no educational system, regardless of where it is located,will turn out educated adults. If an individual does not want to learn, access to learning experience will not change what they take from the experience. Case in point,I finished the tenth grade before marriage 30 years ago. Yet, I am as smart as anyone in my estimation. I may not have the extended education others have had the priviledge of, but the love of learning has kept me seeking information in various ways, be it reading, the internet, or what have you. I am literate and far from "backwards". Teachers have the honor and priviledge of guiding our nation's future, but in truth, the real duty lies at home with the parents. Keep doing what you do best and hopefully you can make a difference, one teacher at a time.
As you know, I've done a bit of traveling in my tmie. I find that only people from the USA make this judgement. To the foreigners, we're all Yanks. I hold down a job that a dummy COULD NOT do, and I'm Southern bred and born. You tell 'em Sis.
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