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Ok, so I’m a little tired of everyone picking on the South (even though I will say the jackadoodle-doo that pulled the stunt with Jim Cantore didn’t do us any favors in the image department). I agree that, as a whole, we could have done a little better planning for "Snowmaggedon I" and now its bitchier sequel "Snowpocalypse - Fo'Real This Time." May I humbly point out that we just aren’t equipped to handle the powdery stuff? It doesn’t make sense to invest in the equipment it takes to properly clear roads when its use is only necessary every 5+ years (which brings to mind a personal lesson learned – the beaucoup bucks one shelled out for a fancy Jack Lalane juicer was not the best use of funds for the “Detoxifying Juice Cleanse” a certain someone has done…well...once in 5 years and reason #305 why I shouldn't be allowed to watch infomercials). Instead of seeing a bunch of ignorant, bumbling simpletons, I saw something beautiful. We Southern people banded together and truly had each other’s backs. In Atlanta, people took to the interstate and offered food, rides, and lodging to those who were stuck or out of gas. Someone started a Facebook group that, within hours, had 20,000 members designed to match those who were in need with those who could offer assistance. People were freely posting their addresses and what mile markers were closest in order to open their homes to perfect strangers so they wouldn’t have to sleep in their freezing-cold cars. Mother Theresa put it beautifully when she said, “If we have no peace, it’s because we’ve forgotten that we belong to each other.” My darling fellow Southerners just demonstrated that sprit in this beautiful outpouring of love and made me so very proud to be among them.
As many of you know, my niece Haleigh has been in the
hospital for almost 7 weeks now. Through this very difficult time, I have seen
such generosity and sincere kindness. Almost immediately, friends and family organized
a schedule to make sure meals were delivered to the house (‘cause that’s another
thing about Southerners….ain’t nobody going hungry on our watch!). One of Haleigh’s nurses went to Target to buy
a few pairs of those footed PJ’s with the zipper thinking that if we put it on
backwards, it might help HJ to keep her Central Line and GButton in place. She
did that with her own money, on her own time, with her own love for this little
kid on her rotation. Talking to a woman here at the hospital in Charlotte, we
heard of a mama who has been with her baby so long in ICU that all she had were
summer sandals. What did that woman do?
She went to the store and bought that mama a pair of shoes and had the class to
leave them at the nurses’ station as to not embarrass the woman with a
face-to-face handout. So yes, there are times when I shake my head at the
latest "drunk man falling off his tractor" news story coming out of Anals (sic) of Dixie, but these beautiful
expressions of selflessness and “we belong to each other-ness” make this girl
proud to be among this tribe of ig’nant Southerners.
