I cropped out the damaged petals, my way of getting rid of the imperfection in flowers anyway. I went to Leaf & Petal & told them that daisies & my blackened Susans are beginning to flower. The green part came out of the dirt perfectly, then as in every year, the tops got holes in their leaves & flowers came up already looking half-way gone.  Leaf & Petal told me it was moles eating the roots. Then handed me a bottle of pills to put in the dirt  “this stuff was created by Univeristy of Alabama, which is so strange, because you’d expect something like this from the University of Auburn to make something like this.” This makes sense to mostly Alabamians really. Bama is a business school & Auburn is an agricultural school. Everyone in Alabama has a favorite team whether they’ve attended or not. Each unliked team is spoken of in contempt UNLESS one team is NOT playing a game at all, then most of the state will watch the other team play a game & route for their rival because they remember only then, that its just a game & we are all from Alabama.

Strangest damn thing. When I arrived I was ordered by my Aunt & Uncle, both had or was working at a completely different school, University of Alabama at Birmingham-mostly known as nursing, medical school.  I was told that my favorite team & school was University of Alabama, where the “Bear” (famous) coach played & then coached. I just answered ok.
Alabama is known as the Bible belt, because of the Baptists. Time does change somethings. Some of the Yankees invaded for UAB known as one of the best Medical schools around. People from all over the world came for Business, medicine or agriculture/arts at our colleges. It is cheaper to live in the South. So the Yankees are coming. a/c was invented & more Yankees have come to live.

We have all been welcomed with a “Hi, where ya from?” People mostly don’t care, if its to attend a University. Second question, “Ya for Alabama or Auburn.” Most say Alabama, because it obviously sounds the safest. If you tell this to an Auburn fan, they usually just grunt & move on.

If you are an illegal immigrant working for the season, most are Latino & have come to Alabama to do work, I wouldn’t recommend it. Latino’s are not welcome by the local governments & the small minds that have shared the earth for a millennia, but people who ask Latinos to work for practically nothing, don’t mind the Latinos. Kinda like a long time ago, when Abraham sent the Yankees down & changed a few things. Then in the 60’s, when the Yankees came again, leading that group was Martin Luther King. He was trying to remind everyone what God said,  Jesus said, what the constitution said, what the Magna Carta said. We are all People in God’s eyes.

I see hope for both the holes in my plants & the closed minds of native Alabamians. Both will take time to fix. Bring nature of man & earth to balance.
The holes & damage is being caused by moles, so we put some Bama made organic stinky stuff in the red dirt.
As far as opening closed minds, maybe attending a football game & sitting beside someone from another country with different beliefs & both of them sharing a love of their football team might help. Bama’s gonna kick some ass. Or Auburn. & those pills made by Bama is going to send those moles packing.  & my very small part of this earth & in this brief time I am here, I will have made the earth blossom.

Or not.  I love Alabama, I love most of its people, I love Vermont, I love most of its people.  Do I think Yankee’s are smarter or better then the southerners?  No, but I do believe people are created & act differently in different climates.  When Summer comes to Alabama, & you open the door to let the cat out, close the door after kicking his little tush & your in a sweat.Without A/C long ago, it did feel as though Hell is coming for you &  its going to kill everything living outside.  Made people scared.  So brimstone & fire in church without A/C didn’t teach much long ago without air conditioning, because the brain is screaming for relief & those words seem so true. Passed on to each generation. FEAR~  In the North, Summers feel as though Heaven has desended after months of close living inside trying not to freeze your tush off.  A lot of talking &  ideas are exchanged, because there is nothing else to do in your free time.   But the South is now cooler & the North is sick of cold & two different types of thinking merge.  & we wrestle with ideas.  Minds (both Northern & Southern) that are closed, tend to be angry & self-righteous, they don’t listen, they just know they are right.  They live small.  Open minds live large & dream big. They question everything, a need to learn & to be heard.  Most dream of peace & a good football game & an ice cold beer. Or Gardening & an ice cold sweet tea.  Whatever your dreams are, & they are to make our home better, I wish your dreams to come to be true.