Someone shared this on my wall and I wanted to pass it on. "Im not a Texan. I dont adore the Lone Star State. Im a transplant whos lived in Austin for the last four years. I cant name the state fish, I dont understand the thing with mums at Homecoming, and I think chicken fried steak sucks. I dont care about Friday Night Lights.
But I married into a Texas family. A Texas family with crazy deep roots. My wife is a direct descendant from the Texas Revolution. Through my marriage, I get a front row seat to all things that filter through the Texas lens. Ive learned a lot about bluebonnets and Whataburger. I know the difference between casual allegiance with Texas colleges, what it really means to be a Longhorn, and the difference between good salsa and crap that came out of a jar.
If theres one lesson Ive learned as an outsider looking in, its that theres a sense of purpose to these people like Ive never seen. A central passion runs through Texans unlike any other American identity. Pride percolates here. Its something people who arent from Texas just cant grasp. We may have a docile sense of civic pride for our hometowns, but nothing like this state demands of its residents.
The Texas flag flies as high as the American flag, while the state Capitol is just a smidge taller than the U.S. Capitol, because Texas. There are Texas flags on everything. And folks all over this huge collection of miles expect a reverential obsession from those who choose to take up this address, if only for a while. That sense of purpose and absolute unwillingness to bend in their pride is why Texas will only become stronger in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Before Texas, I spent seven years in New Orleans, a place that knows about heartbreak and flooding. To love New Orleans is to love the city. But a New Orleanian aint much of a Louisianan, despite them being hand in hand. Theyre two different cultures. But here, even if youre from the Panhandle or live along the Gulf of Mexico, you still adore this state and will bond together under that flag, that symbol
Typically, cities talk smack on one another, and the outlying country towns dont want anything to do with the big cities and their completely different personalities. There are liberals and conservatives, cowboys and city slickers, white folks, brown folks, black folks and every shade in between wearing cowboy boots. This place has many stories, many sides to the dice.
Harvey took many lives. It dumped acres of water onto the streets of Houston, decimated Rockport, and flooded Galveston and cities and towns across southeast Texas. But Texas will lick its wounds. Texas will come back bigger and better, and brighter and with more Texas-ness than you can imagine. Texans cannot allow for their diamonds to go unpolished. The thought of a place in Texas where local culture dies just doesnt feel right. There are no places where the roads are unfinished, or the buildings lie in ruins that would go against everything these people have known their whole lives: This land is precious and it is our birthright.
........ H-E-B and Buc-ees, two Texas brand giants, came to the rescue, offering shelter, food, showers, and support. Mattress Mack, a Houston mattress maven, opened his warehouses so folks could get a good nights rest. The people here know a love that moves deeper than their sense of pride its a calling of purpose.
You cannot count Texas out. Theres no other state in our union that could handle this hurricane. New York has taken its lumps. New Orleans knows what loss feels like, but this is a monster named Harvey that weve never seen before. Who better to challenge Harvey head-on than Texas? Theyll do it wearing an Astros cap and with a twisted smile, daring that water to take a piece of the land they love so much."
Robert Dean is a writer and journalist living in Austin.