Two posts in a week?!? Whoa.

I actually intended to write this post yesterday, but I was distracted and forgot. Something that I have noticed, and lamented to some of my readers since moving to Lamesa, is the sameness of almost everyone here. There is some racial diversity, in that there's a decent mix of white, black, and Hispanic (a group which everyone here refers to as "Spanish"), but there is little to no Asian or Middle Eastern population in west Texas. Further, everyone I've come across is either Baptist or (a few are) Methodist. I realize this shouldn't really be a surprise to me or anyone else, but it makes me sad. I never realized it at the time, but I was lucky to grow up in a pretty diverse setting. I have multiracial cousins on my mom's side and diversity of religious beliefs on both sides of my family, from my parents on out. Perhaps even more importantly, my parents were always open to the idea of teaching Lisa and I about different cultures, be it in terms of food, religion, history, or anything else. My dad's best friends at UTA and Mobil were Muslim and Hindu, and my dad is somewhere between agnostic and atheist, so I've been comfortable with the idea of the validity of diverse types of beliefs since I was young.

Long story short, (too late!) I wish the people I know out here had been given the same experience. Everyone is in their little bubble of what is acceptable in terms of religion and morals and behavior, and nobody seems capable of internalizing the idea that there is more than one right way to do pretty much everything. I don't think my coworkers have any idea when they offend me: they'll apologize for making some mildly misogynist joke, but then go on to make some comment about gay people (but "gay" isn't the vernacular here) or Arabs (not that they use the word "Arab," either) or that anyone who believes in evolution is clearly going to hell, and it never occurs to anyone that these are the things that piss me off and make me want to walk out or yell at them, because they assume they are right and the Other in that context is, obviously, wrong.

I really miss living in a diverse environment, where people actually have opinions that are different from one another, and backgrounds that are unique. It seems to me that I'm the only odd duck. I went straight to college and law school, didn't get married and divorced young, no second marriage, no kids, no background in law enforcement, I don't regularly attend First or Second Baptist, etc. Lamesa is not home. How soon can I move back to a place like home? It can't be soon enough.

QOTD: "Since folks here to an absurd degree, seem fixated on your verdigris, would it be all right with you, if I de-greenify you?"