Redneck Nation

Being Southern Blog #1

Redneck Nation Family,
Welcome to the Redneck Nation Newsletter and Blog. This weeks topic is “What it means to be from the South or Southern” Now there are many schools of thought here are a few.  
Being a Southern lady means always caring about the smallest of details--- fine invitations, place cards, guest favors, and great parties. Being Southern mean shaving good manners, using them often, and being hospitable. Southerners are taught from an early age to say, "yes ma'am & no ma'am... yes sir & no sir".
But no matter what lane you fall into it is your choice every day to represent what it means to have the heritage of the south. So be free and go
If you want to read more about Redneck Nation, Bottleneck, Upchurch, Kelsoh, the Hillbillies and other members of the Redneck Nation Family…STAY TUNED!!!
The World's Most Interesting Redneck
Being southern means being tied to the land – overgrown and luscious, maddening in density. Our land is fragrant, and always resisting cultivation. The sloping fields, deep woods, and coursing rivers bear the names of British monarchs, founding fathers, and peoples long ago stripped of the land they alone had loved. We utter all these names and thus give them power to shape us.
Being southern means enduring our summers. The heat and humidity make us a little wild. This wildness permeates our language, our posturing, our emotions, our very ideas of life, and meaning. We often straddle a desire to be both gracious and raw in authenticity.
We’ve created literature, music and cuisine celebrated the world over. We’re a land of celebrated authors and musicians, as well as countless women and men who had to leave their work nameless.
We recognize that “y’all” is the single most satisfying phrase to utter.
We crave porch sitting and tea sipping.
We showcase in no quiet or subtle ways the very marrow of human nature. We as a people have loved intensively and hated in tragic proportions. We are renowned for our hospitality and made infamous by our segregation. There always seems to be a war brewing. It will be your generation’s job to finally bring peace.
Southerners claim the most paradoxical of heritages. A heritage that birthed modern ideals of liberty and freedom while simultaneously enslaving many of its members. Some people liberated while still oppressing. Some people lived in chains, but never stopped dreaming of freedom. We have tended things that should have been left behind and neglected many thing that only propelled us toward justice.
We southerners are not a melting pot, but a boiling stew, in which the influences of countless civilizations are colliding and marinating with one another. You must remember those who still yearn to taste true freedom.
My son, you must one day come to terms with the paradox of your heritage. You will be proud, but you will also feel anguish. You may love, but only after knowing that loving something doesn’t make it perfect. You can speak of your experiences, but you must also listen and learn from voices of those who have not shared your experiences.
For you, being southern will mean carrying on traditions that bring beauty to the world and embracing changes that make our culture worthy of the land which nourishes us.
 
rednecknation.com
Author Tom Louderback