the South is like Christmas. (or, the post to annoy all yankees)

weird title for march? maybe. humor me.

i love yankees. well, that's not entirely true. as a group, that great lakes vowel shift they do drives me batty. i'm fairly certain my ears start to bleed a little when i hear it. but there are some yankees (vowel shift or not) that i just love to pieces. my daddy, for example, and my sweet aunt loie (who i've decided is actually a southerner at heart - whether or not she knows it). there are lots of other yankees who hold a special place in my heart. if you're a yankee who reads this whole post, rest assured, you're on that list.

i follow country outfitter on facebook. it's allegedly a clothing ... company. or something. much more frequently than they post about clothes, they post things about country music, southern traditions, things your meemaw (or in my case, grannaw) taught you...not a lot of clothes. they seem to post the same things over. and over. and over. i'm not complaining. maybe i am a little. but that's not why i brought it up.

yesterday they posted (or i saw it for the first time yesterday) this little article entitled "25 Ways to Keep Southern Charm in Your Life No Matter Where You Live." y'all know how i feel about southern charm and southern traditions and how i'm a little bit losing my mind in this part of florida that should be more southern than it is. if i've said it once, i've said it a million times: i'm living in the north-florida (south-georgia) equivalent of austin. (if you don't get that analogy (metaphor?)...bless your heart.) in this article, they recommend things you can do in whatever part of the world your life has landed you in to have a little bit of dixie in your life. they're generally very good suggestions - keep a pitcher of sweet tea in the fridge, for instance. come on. that's just smart, southern or not. they suggest making one night a week "comfort food night" (i don't remember exactly what they call it) and have fried pork chops and greens and a stick of butter. also a great idea - okay, maybe not the butter part, but the rest. i would posit, though, that these are things that southerners do without having to be told. and we don't do it because we need some more south in our lives, we do it because it's part of who we are. something deep in our souls calls out for front porch swings and sweet tea and fried food. it's this thought that has motivated the thesis of today's post:

Southern is not a thing you do, it's who you are.

we say "y'all." a lot. but not because, as the article suggests, it's charming (although i think we can all agree that it is). we say it because how else would you possibly refer to a group of 2-5 people? and we say "all y'all" because how else would you refer to a group of 6 or more? we take it with us when we move to other parts of the country (occasionally by accident or against our will) because what else would we do? would you expect a bostonian to move down south and stop sounding like this? didn't think so.

i could continue and explain why i don´t quite agree with every single point of this post, but y'all are smart folks and i imagine you probably get it. which brings me back to the title. people always talk about the "Christmas spirit" - Christmas isn't about the presents or the date roll cookies or the wreaths we hang on our doors. it's about giving and being kind to people and that little kid who just wants to get shoes for his mom (i'm sorry. that was sneaky and terrible i shouldn't have done it.). i think being Southern is very much the same. sure, we're (by and large) a sweeter population than the rest of the country, and we're not afraid to tell you, but when we tell you, it's not because we need to brag on ourselves. it's because we want you to know that when you're in trouble, when you need someone to help you change your tire on the side of the road or jimmy the door on your car when you locked your keys inside or help you find your wallet when you lost it or offer you some sweet tea when you come over to help us fix something at our house, we're likely the ones to do it.

Southern isn't what we do. it's who we are.

y'all have a great weekend. ♡whit