Texas by God!

They say God made the world and everything in it in six days and on the seventh he rested.

They also say that on that seventh day the devil made Texas.


The Alamo. Travis' drawin' of a line in the sand with his sabre. The deaths of himself, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett.

The Battle of San Jacinto. Sam Houston having Santa Anna surrender to him as he rested under a tree.

Texas is one helluva place to live. It's the only state in the union to have been its own country and therefore its flag is able to fly as high as that of the U.S. It's rich with history and culture. Texas has every kind of land you could hope to find. You want ocean? You want want plains? You want forrests? You want deserts? You want cities? You want small towns? Texas has it all.

I always loved the shape of Texas, too. I know it sounds kind of odd but think about this: What shape is Wyoming? I don't know. What shape is Washington? Now, what shape is Texas? Texas is its own Texas shape.

Texas has the motto of "friendship" and you can meet plenty of good and friendly people here. There are plenty that have their own eccentric views. Some lean to the left some to the right. There are those that believe in sharin' beer and smokin' on a front porch as the sun goes down. There are those that believe the west was never won and carry their pistols and wear cowboy hats and boots. They give Texas its color.

The rough territory has been accused of makin' the people here tough as hell too. There are rattlesnakes, scorpions, bears, mountain lions, panthers and gators. The summers get into three digit numbers and in certain areas in the winter it actually snows enough to acknowledge. So, in the territory you get some rough customers too. They aren't friendly, in fact they can be downright mean. They give Texans the reputation for bein' tough enough to handle anything.

My favorite thing of all about Texas is that myth of Texas.

This is the place where cowboys and indians fought bloody gruesome wars. It's where lawmen stood against bandits. Out in the streets of Texas towns was where gamblers settled feuds in duels. Characters as big as creation were born of the Texas soil. Texas was the wildest spot in the west.

The American icon of the cowboy was born in the great state of Texas. Kids grow up in New York wantin' to play cowboys and indians. Nobody plays bankers and lawyers. It's more fun to run wild and get a lil rowdy from time to time.

All of this country used to be untamed and free, but all the "civilized" people have gotten to it and bricked everything up. They light every dark corner on every street so there is no danger or mystery. The cities are so bright it's near impossible to see the stars. Seein' the stars is a dangerous thing for city folks you know, it hurts the ego to see somethin' in the sky so beautiful, so wonderful, that you can't have or hurt or be better than.

This same "civilized" bunch came and caged the Native Americans into the poorest patches of land they could find. A damn poor way to treat the people that were kind enough to help early settlers survive. In my opinion, the natives had it pretty well down. They lived not to control the world around them but seeking to understand it and treated all things with the love and respect that you treat living creatures. Granted, they fought amongst themselves and against the government in a bloody way, but compared to our destruction of whole cities with a single bomb we don't exactly look civilized. Native Americans were not perfect but no civilization is. I do respect them for never surrendering their ways completely and how they once lived in harmony with the wild within themselves and in the world.

Texas has always held on to a little bit of that wilderness on its land and in its people's hearts.

I hope it always does.