Half my family hails from Texas. I've not visited since 2000, when we finished liquidating my Grandfather's place outside of Gonzales; my connection with the Lockhart/Gonzales/Shiner/Flatonia metroplex has faded since all of my close relatives in that area have passed away. All the same, I spent so much time in the neighborhood in bygone days that I still feel a strong connection to the place.
So I don't speak as a completely insensitive, lowdown Sooner or even worse thing from further north when I say the following.
It's possibly instructive in an important way to see that shortly after Praying Perry fills a stadium to lead Texans in supplication to a greater power, Texas not only gets impossibly hotter but actually bursts into flames. "Trust, but verify" is the maxim that might be best in this case; followers of Perry should be careful to check a map.
Out here we get pretty frequent reminders that we live on the sufferance of nature and not the other way around. Man builds what and where he wants and nature decides what stays or goes.
That is the case everywhere and always; it's simply the interval between corrections that varies from place to place.
On Perry, one has to hope the contrast between his denialism and the reality of Texan climate is a terrible low-point, and his attitude will be roundly rejected. Though the fear is the opposite: denial will prove increasingly resilient in the face of reality.
I've read a number of remarks of late to the effect that "weather and climate are in God's hands." Fatalism ought to be a coping mechanism only taken in the last resort, a final story to be told in the face of total ignorance of what otherwise might be done to optimize. I have to wonder if prayer on the part of folks afflicted with catastrophic drought and heat is mental surrender, acknowledgement of bafflement.
"Insallah" is not what got us into the the predicament of our hegemony on Earth and is not the means to our salvation.
Wiki has this archetypcally Texan (IMHO) bit of Bastrop history:
"Bastrop's namesake, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop was actually a commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel wanted for embezzlement in his native country of the Netherlands. In Texas, he assisted Moses and Stephen F. Austin in obtaining land grants in Texas, and he served as S.F. Austin's land commissioner.
"In 1827, Stephen F. Austin located 100 families in an area adjacent to his earlier Mexican contracts. Austin arranged for Mexican officials to name a new town there after the baron who died the same year."
Once can only imagine that his offical position allowed Bastrop to be in on some spectacular frauds.
That's a hellish sight.
ReplyDeleteHalf my family hails from Texas. I've not visited since 2000, when we finished liquidating my Grandfather's place outside of Gonzales; my connection with the Lockhart/Gonzales/Shiner/Flatonia metroplex has faded since all of my close relatives in that area have passed away. All the same, I spent so much time in the neighborhood in bygone days that I still feel a strong connection to the place.
So I don't speak as a completely insensitive, lowdown Sooner or even worse thing from further north when I say the following.
It's possibly instructive in an important way to see that shortly after Praying Perry fills a stadium to lead Texans in supplication to a greater power, Texas not only gets impossibly hotter but actually bursts into flames. "Trust, but verify" is the maxim that might be best in this case; followers of Perry should be careful to check a map.
Welcome to California.
ReplyDeleteOut here we get pretty frequent reminders that we live on the sufferance of nature and not the other way around. Man builds what and where he wants and nature decides what stays or goes.
That is the case everywhere and always; it's simply the interval between corrections that varies from place to place.
Last year Russia, this year Texas and Mexico. Next year Europe?
ReplyDeleteOn Perry, one has to hope the contrast between his denialism and the reality of Texan climate is a terrible low-point, and his attitude will be roundly rejected. Though the fear is the opposite: denial will prove increasingly resilient in the face of reality.
ReplyDeleteI've read a number of remarks of late to the effect that "weather and climate are in God's hands." Fatalism ought to be a coping mechanism only taken in the last resort, a final story to be told in the face of total ignorance of what otherwise might be done to optimize. I have to wonder if prayer on the part of folks afflicted with catastrophic drought and heat is mental surrender, acknowledgement of bafflement.
ReplyDelete"Insallah" is not what got us into the the predicament of our hegemony on Earth and is not the means to our salvation.
Wiki has this archetypcally Texan (IMHO) bit of Bastrop history:
ReplyDelete"Bastrop's namesake, Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop was actually a commoner named Philip Hendrik Nering Bogel wanted for embezzlement in his native country of the Netherlands. In Texas, he assisted Moses and Stephen F. Austin in obtaining land grants in Texas, and he served as S.F.
Austin's land commissioner.
"In 1827, Stephen F. Austin located 100 families in an area adjacent to his earlier Mexican contracts. Austin arranged for Mexican officials to name a new town there after the baron who died the same year."
Once can only imagine that his offical position allowed Bastrop to be in on some spectacular frauds.
WV suggests I'm being a wisegici.
Alexander Ac --- European Russia is in, well, Europe.
ReplyDeleteMany haven't noticed.