The truth is, it matters not where you finish, it is what you accomplished along the way. I am constantly amazed at where the folks that I grew up with are now. I am not talking about an address or a job, I am talking about where they are in the development of their character and the human being they have now become.
I am almost 50 years old and I don't have any relationships with anyone that I would consider privileged, entitled, or a product of an easy and trouble free life. My relationships are dominated by people who grew up in the middle of America, they learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance, they learned how to work hard and accept responsibility for their actions. I know that Midland, Texas is not like every where else in the world and for that I am thankful. Midland, Texas, when I grew up there, was a well educated cross section of America. Almost everyone there came from somewhere else. For the most part, we grew up in an upper middle class town and we were born to parents who had survived a depression, WWII and the Korean War. They used the GI Bill to educate themselves. They struggled to find a way through the ambiguity of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, Water Gate and an all out social and sexual revolution. They did the best they could to prepare us for a world that they hoped would be better than what they had. From where I sit right now, I know they did a damn good Job!
I consider it a privilege to know so many folks that honor God with their lives, they give back to their communities and they readily acknowledge that the successes of their lives are not purely the result of their own efforts. The part of America that I come from believes that we owe our freedom to someone else, that feeding our appetites is not the only reason to live and that Personal Responsibility and Personal Freedom run hand in hand.
May God continue to bless the regular folks from the regular towns all across this great nation. I finally realized why the rest of the world tries to discount the non Hollywood, non New York portion of our country. The power of the United States is in a hard working mom and dad, a fresh faced kid in a shit hole third world country trying to protect the weak, and values that only exist where someone has the balls to teach them.
I thank God that is where I come from.
I am almost 50 years old and I don't have any relationships with anyone that I would consider privileged, entitled, or a product of an easy and trouble free life. My relationships are dominated by people who grew up in the middle of America, they learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance, they learned how to work hard and accept responsibility for their actions. I know that Midland, Texas is not like every where else in the world and for that I am thankful. Midland, Texas, when I grew up there, was a well educated cross section of America. Almost everyone there came from somewhere else. For the most part, we grew up in an upper middle class town and we were born to parents who had survived a depression, WWII and the Korean War. They used the GI Bill to educate themselves. They struggled to find a way through the ambiguity of Vietnam, the civil rights movement, Water Gate and an all out social and sexual revolution. They did the best they could to prepare us for a world that they hoped would be better than what they had. From where I sit right now, I know they did a damn good Job!
I consider it a privilege to know so many folks that honor God with their lives, they give back to their communities and they readily acknowledge that the successes of their lives are not purely the result of their own efforts. The part of America that I come from believes that we owe our freedom to someone else, that feeding our appetites is not the only reason to live and that Personal Responsibility and Personal Freedom run hand in hand.
May God continue to bless the regular folks from the regular towns all across this great nation. I finally realized why the rest of the world tries to discount the non Hollywood, non New York portion of our country. The power of the United States is in a hard working mom and dad, a fresh faced kid in a shit hole third world country trying to protect the weak, and values that only exist where someone has the balls to teach them.
I thank God that is where I come from.
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