Why Did You Move Here? A Rant From WV

OK...so here's the question heard in every rural community in America, "If you think we're such hillbillies and living here is such a pain, why did you move here"?

A nasty rumor reached me yesterday...now the first thing I must say is that rumors abound in the country. While they are seldom entirely correct, there is always a kernal of truth lurking.

So this nasty rumor was that a neighbor, a "city feller" recently moved here, has joined ranks with some land grabbing developers and vowed to work to get rid of all the hillbillies here once and for all. I would have dismissed this rumor as it goes around periodically, but I know this neighbor well and wouldn't put it past 'im.

I wasn't born here. I was transplanted as a tween by my parents over 50 years ago and things were rough and ready here then. Our nextdoor neighbor was cooking moonshine, there was no indoor plumbing in our house, a tweaky coal furnace, woodstove in the kitchen and questionable electricity here and there. No phone, no TV.

What we had was amazing neighbors and some of the kindest most generous, funloving,smartest people I have ever known in my life. They are my neighbors, my family, my friends and I love them dearly. They didn't care that I was a city kid. They took pity on me and laughed at me and loved me. They played jokes on me, molded me, taught me about the land and animals and farming and canning and gardening and how to laugh. They enriched my life beyond words.

Now some people take to this lifestyle and some don't. My brother, never quite made the connection. Maybe he's just not the sort of person that can let go of himself. Or maybe he just takes after my dad...more of a spectator and commentator than participant. But my mom and I dove in with whole hearts and planted our gardens, canned beans, tomatoes, made jam...the whole nine yards.

So here's the paradox...all these hardworking people, the "hillbillies" and their ancestors, made this area and land what it is. They created the whole atmosphere that the city transplants and intellectual snobs seek to make themselves whole. So the elite move here and then begin to whine and complain about the very things and people that made the place attractive to them in the first place. My neighbor wants to get rid of the hillbillies and get more people like himself here so that he can grow to dislike them and go off in search of more hillbillies to look down on and displace.

My theory is that all the overeducated, self righteous, wine snob types move here because they need someone to be better than so they won't dislike themselves so much.
Or maybe whining just comes with the territory and lifestyle of these folks. I feel so sorry for them. They are missing the core of life.

My education in anthropology tells me that this pattern is eternal. I envision the cavemen, yog and og sneering at each other's lifestyle. It is, after all, human nature, to disagree. Every two year old, in every society, thinks they are the cat's meow and few get over it.

I firmly believe in positive thinking. Although I do enjoy a good rant now and then.I often wonder why people choose to make themselves unhappy, when it is so easy not to? Why choose to live where you are not happy? Anger, is the wind that blows out the candle of the mind. Envy eats the soul. No one lives forever. Why waste the precious minutes of life fighting with people or trying to change people or get even? Why not die knowing you did the best you could and tried like hell not to harm anyone along the way? My mom died with a smile on her face. I know why.