Kevin Basil

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After reading, for the fifth or sixth time, a post by Peter Sherry (Who wouldn’t want a pair of fierce trousers?) about repenting of his attitude towards Kentucky, I have a confession to make. I know I shall probably be flamed, but I’m still embarrassed to say I’m from Kentucky.

I try to get around it; I hem and haw. I say, “Well, my dad was in the Navy, so I’ve grown up all over the place.” Truthfully, the last twelve years of my life were in the Bluegrass of Lexington. I should probably just say, “I’m from Lexington, Kentucky,” and get over it. But I cannot.

I sorely miss a lot of people there. I miss Joseph-Beth Booksellers, where I learned the true meaning of customer service — and was spoiled for life. (There is a related story I need to blog.) I miss Sweet Jessamine Rose, a wine by Nicholasville vineyard Chrisman Mill.

Mostly, I miss St. Athanasius parish. They have been intimate companions on my journey for the last twelve years. And they are growing. They had over sixty people at last Sunday’s Divine Liturgy, and they are preparing to purchase land out by Chrisman Mill! I feel like a parent who’s missing his little girl take her first steps because he’s on a business trip.

Yet, there is much I do not miss at all: The bickering in Lexington over development. The denial of folks flaunting bumper stickers that read, “Development Destroys Bluegrass Forever,” while steadfastly refusing to produce workable solutions when greenspace could be preserved using civil engineering such as Charlotte, North Carolina, has done. The insular, provincial attitude of so many people in that state. (And I didn’t really live out in the country, so I missed the worst of it.)

North Carolina still holds the record for the state that I’ve lived in more than any other state. It edges out my twelve years in Kentucky by a month or two. (Thank Jesus!) North Carolina is a state I’m proud of. Cheerwine shreds Ale-8-One like Enron papers. And North Carolina has coastline property.

North Carolina authentically carries Confederate heritage; she is truly a Southern state. When North Carolina good ol’ boys fly the Southern Cross — the Confederate Navy Jack — they actually have claim to. They are not fronting. I cannot hold Kentucky’s exclusion from the CSA against her, though; she was prevented from seceding by the Union (I can’t remember how). To her credit, however, she claims President Davis’ birthplace and his baccalaureate from Transylvania University.

I guess my ambivalence toward the Bluegrass, in spite of good things about Kentucky, is because I’m still a North Carolinian at heart.

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