Sylviebead Journal

It's Monday and grey here in Atlanta and I'm thinking about totally unbeady things (although I do have beady news for another day)

Today as I drove to work down Lake Forest Dr., I started thinking about stuff (I've said before... for some reason I do a lot of good thinking on that road and many of my blog postings originate on that drive). So, I was listening to NPR and they had a story about the movie premiere for Gone With the Wind being here in Atlanta on this date back in 1939. It got me thinking about Atlanta and how I love living here. I've lived here most of my life and I absolutely love this town.

I was talking to someone a week or so ago and in the conversation, she said that she hated the south. This wasn't a conversation of north vs. south or really anything having to do with that, so I saw it sort of an unnecessary comment, especially towards someone who is truly a southerner through and through. I wasn't insulted, I have no idea if she knew that I grew up here and honestly, her opinion of the South really didn't matter to me... but the fact that she said it at all just made me think.

OK... I'm going to say some things here that might offend, so please remember that this is MY blog and I can say what I want here and if you don't like it... don't read it OR post a comment (which if I don't like, being that it's my blog, I will probably delete).

Back to what I was saying... I thought how TYPICALLY un-Southern that statement "I hate the south" was. If any Southerner had been in a northern town, talking to a northerner (or Westerner, or in Europe talking to a European, etc.) they would NEVER have said that!!!! If nothing else, we are taught to be polite. If you don't have anything nice to say... just don't say it OR end it with a "bless their heart" which can be used to nullify anything catty you might have just said.

I have lived other places than the South, as well as traveled extensively through the U.S. and I've found that this inability to censor seems to be present in lots of non-southern people (I told you that this might offend). I had one particular city (one in which I have LOTS of friends, so I'm not naming it) that I used to HATE doing shows in just because people there would walk right into my booth and say "oh, that's awful! I absolutely hate this, let's move on!" I kid you not. If that booth had been in the South, I would have NEVER in a million gazillion years heard that from a Southerner. I might have heard "oh, that's interesting," which is a good way for a Southerner to say they don't like something artistic without SAYING it.

I'm not saying that all southerners have this trait, but what I'm saying is that you would be hard pressed to find a Southerner that has it because any good southern mama would have taught her children to 'zip it' if they didn't have something nice to say. I think the world could use more of this.

When I hear someone who is living in Atlanta say that they hate the south, I really want to say "well... MOVE" but I'm a good Southern girl and instead, I flash my best southern girl smile (where we grit our teeth behind the smile, holding in all the catty things we want to say)...

and then I go talk to my southern girlfriends (and my blog) and say what I REALLY want to say and end it with...

"bless her heart."


tiny blah blah blah...

Coffee- nope. Today was a Chick-fil-a sweet tea with lemon day, which is pretty funny considering that I'm talking about southern stuff... it wasn't planned, just happened.

Music - Jason Mraz - The Dynamo of Volition, which I keep listening to over and over because it makes me happy. (good job! get em up way high! gimme gimme gimme that high five!)