Whiskey Women and Andy Griffith...

There are two different themes that are running throughout the threads of contemporary country music right now.

The first is the recording of songs that have the theme of very non-traditional, strong, even tomboyish females who shun the values of glamor that are prevalent in culture. Toby Keith's "Whiskey Girl," in which he describes his woman who can't stand beer, champagne, or margaritas, because of the lack of burning tequila, and Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman," in which she celebrates the fact that she is comfortable drinking beer with a baby on her hip and her Christmas lights up year round, are just to such examples.

The other themes is that of a great desire to return to traditional American, Norman Rockwell-type, values. Examples of this are Rascal Flatt's "Mayberry," where they lament the fact that people don't sit on their front porches anymore and say hi, by name, to the neighbors passing by and Buddy Jewel's "Sweet Southern Comfort," which extols the great Southern ideals of hospitality, kindness, and catching fireflies by the creek.

And these two seemingly contradictory themes represent one of the great struggles of human kind. How much should we cling to the past and how much should we strive for the future.

It's also one of the great struggles of my life, and I don't know the answer. Finding a place in Chandler, or possibly even Carthage, with a front porch and the opportunity to catch up on the gossip at the drugstore, while working as a teacher and being a part of the life of a town, is a big temptation. Accusations of romanticizing the past aside, life was truly much better when that was an option.

But I also understand that I'm not the same person I was and that life would present it's own set of challenges. People who are spotted crossing the county line to the liquor store in Coffee City are stigmatized in places like Chandler. I'd never be able to teach Sunday School. I couldn't say "damn" in Chandler without many of the people praying for my soul.

So I'll keep one foot back there and one foot up here and hope that someday I will find balance.