I can’t say I’ll miss this year. Not because it has been bad – it hasn’t – but because I’m ready for a few changes. I want to be more true to myself. Is that so much to ask? No more trying to be a redneck. No more trying to be part of either political party. No more trying to be more or less than what I am. More of what I care about. In my career I have proven to myself over the last 25 years that my passion is helping the abused of society. Not those who simply claim “abuse”

(Continued from redneckus wannabeus) As far as I can tell, a key skill of an average redneck is the ability to drink beer from a can. My sources say that the best redneck stories begin with either of two phrases: “Hold my beer,” when the event that will become a story commences, or “We had been drinkin’ a little,” to begin the telling of the story. I wouldn’t know, because I don’t like beer. Oh I’ve tried it. I’ve tried a few “american beers” and a few “stouts” but none of th

Continued from redneckus not-at-allus. At this point I was beginning to think of this project along the lines of me trying to do anything else in life just to fit in with others. Pointless. But the dissonance haunted me. On one hand I wanted to accomplish this, so that I would have something to say at social gatherings when the guys were standing around talking about the deer they killed, or the hog they slayed, or the buck they mounted. On the other hand I wanted to satisfy

Continued from redneckus haud. With the lessons on sight, smell and sound under my belt and digested along with the last slim jim (not impressed), I went back out with confidence. I was so confident this time, that I took a knife and ice chest. Actually I had hardly even considered that I needed that before, and in fact, I didn’t. Up well before dawn, I parked the old jeep a half mile or so away from my spot, got out, shut the door ever so quietly, took my exterior layers out

I’m not a redneck. Believe me I’ve tried. I just lack the knowledge and skill set for it. Before trying, I held the misguided belief that being a redneck was a vacuum of knowledge – a default position at which a country-boy would languish if he lacked the initiative to rise. Only in trying to be one did I learn that it is actually a specific set of knowledge and skills, not to be the subject of condescension. My efforts turned out to be a comical series of lessons in humility