YankeeBelle...just a little phrase that I concocted that accurately describes who I am or maybe better to say, WHAT I am...how I see myself. A little background to bring this into focus: Mama's parents left their cotton pickin' (seriously...they were raised up as poor cotton farmers/pickers)life in Arkansas for Michigan and the opportunities to be had in the then burgeoning auto industry. They settled in Flint and never left. Daddy's parents were from South Carolina and they also came to Michigan seeking opportunity, but eventually went back. I grew up hearing Southern speech (y'all, y'uns, yes ma'am) and eating Southern foods (biscuits and gravy, fried chicken GLORY HALLELUJAH, dumplings, cornbread dressing)and worshipping like Southern Baptists do...but in Michigan. The Mitten State (and if you don't know what that means, look at a U.S. map...get it? GOOD!) was my home until at the tender age of twenty-one, Mr. Snark married me and swept me off to Tennessee (GO BIG ORANGE!).
Adjusting to life "Down South" really wasn't that difficult. It seemed very familiar because of my upbringing. I picked up an accent fairly quickly...so I'm told. Maybe it was because that's all I heard...the sweet twang of East Tennessee. Maybe it was a little bit of self defense...no one would be mean to "that Yankee girl" if they didn't know I was one! Summer of 2009, we traveled to Michigan to visit and attend my 20th high school reunion. My accent caused a bit of a stir..."But you grew up HERE! You don't even sound like you're from Michigan!" Yes...I did spend the first twenty-one years of my life in Michigan...but the time is fast approaching that the balance will be equalized and then shift to my time in WayDownSouth being greater. Get over it...the accent stays.
I'm very proud of my geographical ethnicity. I just made that up...do you like it? I don't cotton to ill-mannered jokes or comments about Northern folks and I'm equally as unimpressed with those that are told at the expense of Southerners. Just today, I had to have a corrective interview with a fellow volunteer...she was talking about "that Northern pastor" that her church had "just run off." The fact that there was no shame to "running off" the pastor concerned me, but that's a different topic for a different day. What burned me up was how she implied that Southern preachers are better...she didn't like Northerners. "Well, I guess that means you won't be eating any more of the lunches I cook, right?" She sort of looked confused and then put it together..."You're a Northerner?" She went on to say some other things that did nothing but damage her case and finally, one of the other volunteers told her to quit while she was ahead. Bless them. Being that our organization is a church based ministry, I'd really have hated to undo my Christian witness over ignernce. Ignernce...add that to the YB dictionary...it sounds very much like "ignorance", but it is very different. To be ignorant is to be uneducated, unfamiliar with a topic or situation. Ignernce is to be uneducated and unfamiliar and not care. Now you know.
Here's the deal...rudeness, stupidity, trashy/classless behavior and pure out ignernce is no respecter of geography, race, socio-economic status. Neither are hospitality, kindness, consideration, and grace. I have met people from both sides of the Mason-Dixon...from all walks of life and have seen the full spectrum. People are people...folks is folks. The Bible tells us that in Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew, free or slave, male or female (paraphrased). You could apply that truth to this topic and say that there is neither Yankee or Reb.
It's time....can't we all just get along, y'all?
Adjusting to life "Down South" really wasn't that difficult. It seemed very familiar because of my upbringing. I picked up an accent fairly quickly...so I'm told. Maybe it was because that's all I heard...the sweet twang of East Tennessee. Maybe it was a little bit of self defense...no one would be mean to "that Yankee girl" if they didn't know I was one! Summer of 2009, we traveled to Michigan to visit and attend my 20th high school reunion. My accent caused a bit of a stir..."But you grew up HERE! You don't even sound like you're from Michigan!" Yes...I did spend the first twenty-one years of my life in Michigan...but the time is fast approaching that the balance will be equalized and then shift to my time in WayDownSouth being greater. Get over it...the accent stays.
I'm very proud of my geographical ethnicity. I just made that up...do you like it? I don't cotton to ill-mannered jokes or comments about Northern folks and I'm equally as unimpressed with those that are told at the expense of Southerners. Just today, I had to have a corrective interview with a fellow volunteer...she was talking about "that Northern pastor" that her church had "just run off." The fact that there was no shame to "running off" the pastor concerned me, but that's a different topic for a different day. What burned me up was how she implied that Southern preachers are better...she didn't like Northerners. "Well, I guess that means you won't be eating any more of the lunches I cook, right?" She sort of looked confused and then put it together..."You're a Northerner?" She went on to say some other things that did nothing but damage her case and finally, one of the other volunteers told her to quit while she was ahead. Bless them. Being that our organization is a church based ministry, I'd really have hated to undo my Christian witness over ignernce. Ignernce...add that to the YB dictionary...it sounds very much like "ignorance", but it is very different. To be ignorant is to be uneducated, unfamiliar with a topic or situation. Ignernce is to be uneducated and unfamiliar and not care. Now you know.
Here's the deal...rudeness, stupidity, trashy/classless behavior and pure out ignernce is no respecter of geography, race, socio-economic status. Neither are hospitality, kindness, consideration, and grace. I have met people from both sides of the Mason-Dixon...from all walks of life and have seen the full spectrum. People are people...folks is folks. The Bible tells us that in Christ, there is neither Greek nor Jew, free or slave, male or female (paraphrased). You could apply that truth to this topic and say that there is neither Yankee or Reb.
It's time....can't we all just get along, y'all?
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