Sometimes the deepest truths come from the mouths of babes. Well I consider Linda a babe and certainly she hit this nail on the head.
For all my ranting and chanting about being a Texan, how everything is bigger (it is) and better (its relative) , and faster (we all are when young), and richer (new money vs. old), and prettier (bouffants, really?) well, folks, it just ain’t so.
Our trip to Central Illinois last year showed Linda my Real Roots. Daily life at the Bar None confirms what she already knew. I’m Farm Stock.
Maybe nearly a quarter of a century in Texas inebriated my Midwest sensibilities. Rubbing elbows with the likes of Willie Nelson and many of his buddies. Legends of the music industry like Waylon Jennings, Mickey Gilley, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard and Jerry Jeff Walker to name a few. Actors, Slim Pickens, Diane Cannon, Kris Kristoferson and more. True tale often told, Willie’s wife of 27 years, Connie, was sister to my best friend Mike Koepke. That opened up a lot of doors to the entertainment elite. And no less the outlaws of politics, that scoundrel GWB chief among them. And heroes of sport, Nolan Ryan, Carl Lewis, George Foreman, and Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwan. And NASA being in my backyard, getting to work with Alan Shepard, the first American in space. Heroes all.
Yes, all that did instill the Swagger Certain in my hips and on my lips, amplified it far beyond my Midwest roots.
My first 12 years in Omaha were defined by sometimes (ok, often) righteous indignation, incredulous that others would challenge my view of the world, damned yankees, how dare they! Twenty plus years with a full time, high powered, onerous and demanding business executive further corrupted my own naturally easy going nature. Some say I took out on others what was so consistently dished out at home, I see now they were to a large degree correct.
But something changed all that. Beyond and above it all, some how, some way, one person in Omaha saw the Real Me. The Atwood, Illinois native that grew up with authentic people and values. The me that cries at nearly every movie, that is committed to helping those less fortunate, that works hard for hard work’s sake, that wants more for others than for myself. The me that is devoted to his children, ugly divorce not withstanding, something we both share. That has stood by my side through it all to reveal the Good Man inside.
Linda, thank you and I love you. For helping me become the man I was meant to be and not the one I thought I had to be. The Real Me.
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