The soul of the south
Many writers have attempted to write about the soul of the South, but most of them have struggled with trying to define it. Why? Well, of course, it’s because the South is a strange and very complicated part of the United States. The South has been maligned frequently, by out-ofthe-South newspapers, and if we Southerners believed what has been written about the South, we would have an inferiority complex. But as strange and complicated as we may be, almost every true Southerner will vouch that the South is, without question, the very best part of the United States. And we carry that chip on our shoulder as a proud citizen of the South, and not only do we not have an inferiority complex, we probably have a superiority complex. Well, that’s really does give us a strange and complicated soul, but it’s there.
Yes, there is something deep within the Southern soul that only a true Southerner can relate to, and although I can’t put my finger on it, I know it’s there. I’ve traveled a lot and worked overseas, and in my travels I’ve met Americans in almost every country I’ve traveled to or lived in. It’s always great to meet another traveling American, and without a doubt there is an immediate connection and a warm relationship. But when a Southerner meets another Southerner that connection moves up several notches. It’s hard to explain, but as every black, white, Hispanic, or any other Southerner knows, it’s there. Vertis and I met a young couple from Virginia on an Italian train. They were about our age and on their honeymoon. Virginia and Arkansas immediately clicked, and we stayed friends for years. If you’re not a Southerner, you’ll have trouble understanding that, but it’s a deep almost eerie feeling that only Southerners can relate to. We may live 500 miles apart, but we are soulmates because we live in the South. And speaking of a soul, it is not a coincidence that the South is the most religious section of our country and a conversation of, “Where do y’all go to church?” is a common conversation starter. We take our religion and our souls seriously.
Of course, we Southerners do have a tendency to fight, and during the early part of the Civil War many young men from the South hurried to join the army hoping they wouldn’t miss the fight. Yes, and that urge to fight is still with us. A study by a major University, which set up a deliberate hallway bump to see what reaction people would have in various sections of the country, very quickly found out, Southerners were much more likely to take a strong offense to a bump in a hallway. Of course, that’s why we love football. It’s not the beautifully thrown pass that gets the crowd to erupt. It’s the bone-crushing tackle a good defensive back makes on a tail-back that sends him reeling back with the ball flying, and when ice hockey was introduced to the South, it became an immediate hit, even though Southerners didn’t have a clue about the game. We liked the crunching hits and fights.
If you live or grew up in the south away from the largest cities, you know how we love our guns. We have friends from New York City and the man, in a conversation about gun violence, asked me if I owned any guns, and of course, I said “Yes” and then he asked, “How many?” “Well, let’s see,” I said. “I have two pistols, a
.22 rifle, a .20 gauge shotgun, a .16 gauge semi-automatic Browning Sweet Sixteen..” I stopped the count because he seemed shocked, and he said, “Why, do you have all those guns?” Well, of course, asking a Southerner why he or she owns guns is like asking a fish why it swims.
If you really look into deep into the soul of the South, you’ll see a murky mix of live oaks, monuments, and history. You can sense part of the Southern soul if you drive down a road lined with live oaks leading to a deserted, old plantation house, and you can feel the soul of the South, peeking out from behind the Azaleas during the spring. There is something about this southern flower that always makes a person think of family history, which is an integral part of being a Southerner, and while we abhor slavery, some southerners secretly wish General Pickett had broken the Yankee line at Gettysburg, and we had won the war. But we didn’t. However some Southern souls still carry the ‘lost cause’ deep within their being.
Most rural Southerners of my generation grew up where hunting wasn’t a sport. It was a necessary part of our “hard times” life to put meat on the table, and we can relate to hard times, because they are part of the soul of the south. Our parents or grandparents suffered through the depression of the 30s, which hit the South harder than other sections of the country, and many of our great grandparents could relate to their children the re-construction after the Civil War. Hard times in the South have left deep marks on a Southern soul.
But of all things that represent the soul of the South, food is part of that soul, and good Southern food will top anyone’s list, but as most Southerners know, bad Southern food is just about as bad as it gets. Instant mashed potatoes should be banned in the South as well as canned corn and sugar in cornbread.
So that’s a peak at the complicated soul of the South, which is sometime generous to a fault, gracious, and many times belligerent, but always sure that their church and/or political party is the only way, and I guess this sums it up: “Born an American, Southerner by the Grace of God.”
Richard H. Mason of El Dorado is a syndicated columnist and author and former president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and the state Pollution Control & Ecology Commission. He may be reached by email at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.