What I Love About Texas

Alkelda The Gleeful asked me what I love about Texas, in a call for an ode. It is a strange thing to answer because it is a strange affection. Texas is a state in which poverty is rampant, education is poor, violence and guns and beef are epidemic, oil is King, tolerance for differences is scant (except in Austin) and the social safety net is riddled with bullet holes and cruelty. Anything I say I love about it can easily be refuted, and the opposite of anything I say I love about it is likely true...but life is strange that way, isn't it? Just because the opposite of a good thing is true, it does not mean that the good thing isn't also true. Sometimes it does, but not always. So, with full knowledge of and sorrow for its shortcomings, and full awareness of the ironies inherent in some of the following statements,

I Love TEXAS Because:

My children were born here
I was born here
Of the green Gulf of Mexico, teeming with salt life
Of the beautiful sound of Spanish in my ears
Of bluebonnets and mesquite trees
Of Tex-Mex food
Of cowbirds and whooping cranes
NASA is here
Of bats and caves
Large parts of it stay fairly warm all year
Texans are friendly
Texas is really big
Its flag is pretty
Texans are tough
Texas is my home.