Some
people just love
to tell those of us who live in north Florida that
"Everybody knows North Florida is really just South
Georgia."
Yeah, yeah, yeah; I have heard that all my
life. It is meant as some kind of insult I think, not that there
is anything wrong with Georgia; it is a great state, but I think
a better case can made that South Georgia is really North
Florida.
 Both South Georgia and North Florida have humid sub-tropical
climates, swampy terrain, pecans, slash pines, alligators, palm trees and
palmettos. Both can grow tobacco and sugar cane but don't do all that well
with cotton. Florida's borders once included a good part of what is now
south Georgia.
 Certainly Both
Florida and Georgia are deep in the heart of Dixie, down right as
deep as you can get really; and, although Florida never did
exactly fit into any kind of "Gone With the Wind"
profile, neither did much of the American South including South
Georgia. There is a lot of territory between "Tara" and
"Tobacco Road," but it is all somehow more distinctly American than perhaps
anywhere else on earth.
I mean, think about it! How many things
that seem most uniquely American are Southern in origin, or at
least sojourned in Dixie for a while, from Elvis to Coca Cola, to
quote the old oxymoron, and, everything between and beyond; for
better and/or worse and who is to decide which is
which?
American culture is popular culture, and popular culture has a strong
Southern flavor.
Popular culture serves a very important
purpose in American life. Having so many different backgrounds,
religions, political beliefs, and ethnic identities, it is the
way we come together, our common meeting ground.
I am not all together sure why Americans
decided to go South for our own unique gathering of the
clans; but, I do have a theory.
Not everyone comes to this country for
"freedom or even "opportunity." That old
chestnut is an idealization and exaggeration of reality. The
truth is that people have always came to America, and are still coming
to America, for the same reasons they go
to any new place. Sometimes it is for a better life, including
greater freedom. Sometimes it is to be with loved ones, and
sometimes it is simple wanderlust. At other times it has been
because they were given no choice.
This last item was particularly true in the
past.
The evil of slavery and the shadow it has cast over America and
its culture, particularly that of the South, has been well
documented. Much less well documented is that before the American
Revolution the "The Colonies" were a dumping ground for
those the British Crown considered "undesirable." Most of these so-called
"undesirables" were sent to what is the now the American South. After
the American Revolution the British turned to Australia; and,
Botany Bay got to be famous.
Ain't that grand, how things work out!
At first the
new emigrants probably wished they were back home. Almost
certainly those who found themselves in slavery did; but, they
were not permitted to glorify their homeland and were strongly
discouraged from being too "African." They had to build
a whole new culture from what they could salvage even as they
struggled to be considered Americans; not Africans, Americans,
and in that I considered the term "Afro-American"
a step backward.
Those The Crown had considered undesirable
my guess is at first mourned the loss of family and friends as
well as the life they had known which at least had the comfort of
familiarity. Then they began to make the best of a bad situation
along the way discovering that maybe the bad situation wasn't
so bad after all! But that didn't make them grateful to those
who had in essence thrown them out of their homes; quite the
contrary, it was more like "Scr*w y*u! I can do just fine
without yoou!" and they turned their backs on the world they
had known in the process creating, if not a whole new world,
a whole new culture.
Given the close proximity, it was
inevitable these two cultures would influence each other if not
quite merge. Together they became Southern culture, two sides of
the same coin; made one by their sheer Americaness in that both
may have brought things from "the old world," that was
inevitable; but they not longer looked to that world for any kind
of guidance or inspiration.
 This has often
been taken for bigotry and narrow mindedness by others; and, upon
occasion, although I hate to admit it, it can be just that when
it becomes a kind of strident nationalism; but, all over the
world, in any culture, there are always those who take things too
far.
And... what is wrong in finding your own
way and being proud of it; and, would not the world be a poorer
place without Southern imagination, stubbornness, and
pride?
You see, stubbornness* and pride** are not necessarily the bad things they
are often made out to be, they can be valuable tools in the face
of adversity; and, most people around this world could use more
of both, not less.
*stubbornness, in my opinion, might be best considered as simply a gritty determination.
It is not to be confused with stupidity which is what happens when you keep
making the same mistake over and over,
butting your head against a wall and refusing to face reality. It is
always a good idea to learn to recognize reality when it stares you in the face.
Just because you don't believe in the tiger does not stop it from ripping you to threads.
**And pride is not to to be confused with being plain "stuck up," the idea that you are somehow
better than others: smarter perhaps, better looking, morally superior... No pride is simply
being what we nowadays call "centered" and having a good sense of your own self worth.
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