March 3, 2008
Texas
Yesterday was Texas Independence Day. We made ourselves a republic in 1836, and we’ve never got over it. We had actually become a country all on our own, had already had five flags here and about, and got ourselves a sixth so we could inspire snappy titles for theme parks.
When we first moved from Texas to Tennessee a few decades ago, we got a lot of gas about Tennesseans founding Texas. One time, a New Englander, of all people, told us how to respond to such beleaguering. She said, just agree. Then say that when people were traveling from the east coast out west and came through Tennessee, there were signs that read This Way to Texas. She said to remind them that those who could read went on. Telling it was an endearing experience.
The notion of independence has never been all that attractive to me, because nobody truly is independent. Lewis Thomas, the brilliant biologist-philosopher, once likened this earth to a living cell bounded by the atmosphere, said that we are all — animal, vegetable, mineral, whatever — inseparably connected one to the other. We’re interdependent, we are, anything but independent. Even we Texans. But please be gentle in reminding us.
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