Hill Country Living
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
By Coulter Fussell
As per usual, I sat down to write my weekly column and thought to myself, “What am I going to write about this week considering nothing ever happens in my boring life?” But then I remembered that there was a public assassination attempt on a former US president who is actively running for reelection and the footage is being continually broadcast all over the known universe. So, I had column material.
Y’all. Y’all! We have to get it together. It’s time to chill out. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. This is too much. And it’s been too much for a good long while.
Around 10 years ago I began to drop tribal political rhetoric from my daily cannon because none of it was quite lining up with the lived realities of my actual personal experiences. And I don’t mean I “switched sides.” I mean I recognized that we were all being fed a line that didn’t jive with who we are on a one-on-one level.
So, I just flushed it all. It was a slow flush. It took a minute as you have to actually realize you’re in a toxic relationship before you can get out of one.
It felt good to be free! I didn’t have to get mad or happy anymore when everyone else got mad or happy. Politically, I was the boss of me. This doesn’t mean I don’t care about politics or don’t sometimes rant about it in the kitchen while my husband cooks supper or with my girl group while we’re having happy hour on the porch. I still take stands, devotedly vote on certain issues and have candidates I support.
I’m even the Returning Officer for the Sylva Rena polling precinct. Although admittedly, that probably has less to do with politics and more to do with the fact that I’m nosey and can depend on the Sylva Rena people to tell me all their medical ailments while they vote.
I just don’t immediately think that someone on “the other side” of an issue is dumb. There’s plenty of people from my side who are dumb! I know this because I have personal interactions with them on the daily and – well, I hate to be blunt but – not all geniuses, folks! Bottom line: we’re all dumb.
I don’t know any more than the next person and it can be validly argued that I actually know less than the next person, but my personal take is that we should drop this all-encompassing intolerance deal and shift focus to the one thing that unites us.
And, clearly, that thing is watermelon.
The universal guarantee is that in any situation of duals – Conservative vs Liberal, rural Boomer vs urban Gen Zer, Ole Miss vs State, assassin vs target – everyone involved loves watermelon. Arguing over politics is like arguing over whether the watermelon is better with salt. While salt or no salt can certainly be debated, the lasting impression should be the great glory of our time here on this Earth sharing a delicious watermelon!
Ahead of the curve, Water Valley has been celebrating this Fruit of Unity for 53 years so far and I look forward to joining for the 54th celebration — on the universally agreed upon hottest weekend of year!
