On Being a Red Neck

I often identify as a Red Neck.

Most people do not understand why and attribute it to my Southern, Scots-Irish Roots, similar to Jeff Foxworthy's definition as being "gloriously unsophisticated."  I'll plead "guilty as charged" to that comment, but it's an infinitesimally small part of my being a Red Neck.

Red Necks are also disparagingly considered as part of the "poor, rural, laboring class."  Guilty again.  I'm not too far removed from the farm as to forget how farmers live, spending their lives in the sun, often getting sun burned.  But farmers are famous for using everything until it can't be used any longer.  It's only then when they've used up every part of what they've purchased or grew and at that point, they "parted the item out," keeping what can be repurposed and scrapping the rest.  I've also never been blessed with an abundance on money.  It is stewardship, and yes, I'll plead guilty again.

But the term Red Neck is related to rebellion...Believe it or not, in China.  As my 9th grade (junior) high school history teacher related the story, during the Boxer Rebellion, those that rebelled against the authority identified each other by tying a Red Bandana around their necks during the fighting.  As they were routed in their rebellion, they wished to blend back into the crowd and took their bandanas off.  Little did they realize (at first) that the dye from the Bandana had stained their necks and could not be washed off.  The authorities simply rounded up the "Red Necked" citizens and executed them.  So, am I a rebel?  In many ways, yes.

What I've tried to choose in life is to me "more real,"instead of having more money.