Southern Thoughts

Midway through a grocery stop, I realized I owed the southern man an apology. Instead mocking his intelligence, haircut, car or home, I need to accept that not every gets breaks I did. But tonight, the faces spoke to me in florid strokes - I saw their humanity, not their faults.

In an instant, I stopped judging a region of people based on a couple of snarky songs by a Canadian songwriter I otherwise admire. Tonight I saw the faces that animate the songs of the Drive-By Truckers - people facing much harder realities than mine- and I felt humbled.

When someone stares too long at my brother Joe, my angry response is usually, "Hey, he didn't chose to be this way, buddy." Well, maybe circumstance has weighed on them, family came too soon, or they didn't get a career where a company can move them from Columbus to Nashville (I'm especially self-deprecating today).

These are the people who lost everything when the creeks wouldn't stop rising. At work, we took up a collection for the women who cooks in the downstairs cafe; she lost everything, and has been a little more happy when she sees folks from our floor since we gave her the donations. As much as I sometimes lack to act I have no connections to Nashville, I do and need to embrace them more often or risk a unhappy stay around here. The custodian who used to drop his head when I walked by now returns my greetings.

I landed here by accident. Due to frustration with another store - if the self checkout machines show more humanity the employees, it's time to go - I hunted an alternative. This store sits in a neighborhood some might consider "ghetto." I won't use that term, because they've never been anything but nice to me, the story is clean, and today the store manager even stopped to chat. As I circled the aisles, I noticed she took her time in leaving, talking up other customers. Those moments made me want to shop nowhere else.

It's too easy to judge by stereotype. Drilling down to the person below is harder, but more rewarding. I can't say I've done that, but I think I'll give my fellow Nashvillians a little more leeway in the future.