It started with a talk I went to last Thursday. It turns out, a dear childhood friend of mine, Mari, lives in Duncanville (about 20 minutes down the road from Arlington) and we recently got back in touch with each other (via good old fashioned moms-calling-moms on the telephone, no facebook required). Mari's uncle, Joe Nick Patoski, is a writer and has authored several books on various aspects of Texas including 3 biographies on famous Texans-- Selena, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and, most recently, Willie Nelson. Joe Nick's main thesis, in his life and in his
writing, is that Texas is a unique place that breeds unique people. He is a proud, unapologetic, likeable Texan (a very rare combination) and was recently honored as Author of the Year by the Friends of the Duncanville Library Association (admittedly, in part, because Mari nominated him). His speech on Thursday night was about why he thinks Texas is unique and why Texas music, in particular, embodies the state's distinctive essence. He talked about cultural diversity in Texas-- a place where mexicans, "anglos", blacks, vietnamese, czechs, cajuns, red-necks, hippies, and baptists interact and observe each other. I think I have mentioned before that my favorite thing about UT-Arlington is the diverse student body and it definitely extends beyond the college campus. Even though the rest of the world has a distinctive stereotype when they hear the word "texan", it turns out that is (at best) the weak majority and probably won't be for long. Joe Nick's biographies focus on musicians at the intersection of some of these boundaries who, collectively, represent a much more interesting version of the word "texan" than the stereotype: Selena, a tejana (a texan of mexican descent) who became a national phenom in both the US and Mexico before her early and tragic death; Stevie Ray, born in Oak Cliff (a racially charged area south of Dallas in which the schools were not 
officially declared desegregated until 2003), who was a prominent guitarist able to successfully fuse blues and country guitar despite sociopolitical hurdles rendering them unlikely bedfellows; and Willie, who has managed to bridge the gap between the upstanding, church-going, farmers of the dry county in which he was born with the whiskey-swilling cowboys, pot-smoking hippies, and beer-brewing immigrants in the wet county to which he went every day to perform. In other words, Willie successfully "mingled the sacred and the profane"-- an idea that I believe must be turned into a song itself and that Joe Nick believes is the heart of Texas. Although I am sure most places in America embody similar contrasts if you look closely enough, I have to admit that Joe Nick's thoughts and observations made me appreciate Texas much more than I had an hour earlier that day. I don't think I will be flying a Texas flag outside the trailer any time soon, but I definitely felt some unfurling this past week. Thanks for the invitation Mari!
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