The Straight Dope

You may or may not have heard of this insightful site The Straight Dope. I found it while looking for a reference for one of my columns and got sidetracked again. Rarely do the high and mighty columnists take their readers seriously enough to actually post comments from their readers on certain columns of interest. Dear Abby has to because that is their column. But this little side trip caused me to think about something I hadn't thought of in a long time.

The rural areas of our country are considered hick and backward when in actual fact may be far more advanced than the suburban counterparts due to numerous reasons. Let me count some ways...

1. Rural people are more sociable than suburban people -- we don't see each other often because we live so far apart. If it's within hollering distance, then we'll shout out their name and a friendly hello, but suburban people just nod and maybe smile at their neighbors as they hurry off to do whatever.

2. Rural people have less acid reflux -- I don't know if that is because there are less people in rural areas than in suburban areas, but the numbers don't lie. This surely means rural people have less stress. This must be because we rarely have traffic jams, and if two cars are stopped in the road, we get out and join the conversation.

3. Rural people know their banker, their auto mechanic, their pharmacist and doctor by their first names, and not just their cosmetologist. If fact, most of us would probably say, "Cosmo what? I don't go in for all that astrology stuff."

4.  Rural people take a long time to shop at Walmart because we see people we know and have to stop and chat.

5. Rural people know that our neighbors are looking out for us because we can't go barefoot in the front yard without someone saying something about it at church.

6. Rural people have computers and internet but we still take time to chat across the back fence.

7. Rural people aren't in such a huge hurry. Seeing the trees wave to God on a windy day reminds us of Who is really in control.

I am sure there are suburban folks that are truly close to God, but I don't see them exhibiting it very much. Of course, I don't live in the big city, just a little, insignificant town called Picayune.