One’s “depth of affiliations” is a criminal justice and psychological assessment term used to describe how connected you are to a place and the people in it. People with deep affiliations are seen as better risks for probation rather than jail, and they are likelier to be happy in the place they find themselves than are strangers who happen upon it.
The term is a good explanation for why “there is no place like home” resonates with honesty, and a feeling of love, even if home happens to be a common cesspool where no one in their right mind would spend an unnecessary five minutes. I am thinking particularly of the state of Louisiana and the stark raving impossibility of finding a clean public restroom anywhere in it.
Yes, I know. My God, what a supercilious, miserable dick, you’re thinking. Yet, for all the truthfulness, accuracy, and righteousness of your judgment, it cannot change the fact that Louisiana ranks 50th among states as a decent place to live and to make a living.
Herein lies the problem. Although I rank 50th among 50 people in the charm and playfulness department, Louisiana is still and for all purposes the North American equivalent of Somalia but for the richness of its fast food franchises. So: should I go to charm school? Should Louisiana clean its toilets? Or, should we each defend ourselves, me by claiming a certain janitorial rigor, and Louisiana by emphasizing the “southern heritage” inherent in its presentation of facilities, public or otherwise?
Your answer certainly depends on the depth of your affiliations. If you grew up with po’ boys and chiggers and ticks and a Four Square Full Testimony No Holds Barred Divine Truthiness Church every 100 yards, what you see instead is moonlight and magnolias and the discreet charm of fireflies flickering in the night. It ain’t jail and it ain’t even probation; it’s “our way of life” and why in the world would you want to change that because, Bud, there’s no place like home.
Meanwhile, Arkansas, the Natural State, came in 48th out of 50. Woo pig sooie.
Not surprising that the lowest ranked states for livability are the highest ranked for conservatism. The moral is that if you want a livable home with a clean bathroom, don’t put a Trump voter in it.
South Louisians consider North Loisiana to be another country. Not to even mention the rest of the USA.
Dan, as I happen to be in Louisiana this week, and after eating at Yellow Bowl in Jeanerette and room-and-boarding at the UMCOR campus in Baldwin, I can’t agree with you, but your generalizations may be close. Just ate a fried crab cake and a stuffed baked potato washed down with a lite beer amid a collegial group of central-Arkansas missioners. I guess the tornado nearby and all the rain and flooding here-bouts particularizes and conflicts with your good writing. To me, anyway.
I can’t help it – Louisiana is kinda like visiting another country, and I love it! I can eat my way through and have a smile.
Pass the gumbo!
At least in Arkansas you can use the woods.