Although I have many friends living all over the world, I have never pretended to be anything other than a Southerner from the Carolinas. Like most states and countries, North and South Carolina have a culture unique to them, and I’m proud to say I’ve been blessed to spend my twenty-eight years living in the Carolinas. During this time, I’ve learned some important truths about the Carolina culture: Iced tea should always be made with sugar. Anything else is considered to be brown water. Football is king during the autumn season. There is a difference between being country and being a redneck. Just because a person lives in the South does not make him a redneck. And if a person doesn’t enjoy listening to country music, he should learn to tolerate it because he will hear country music at public places, events, and in his friends’ cars.
Even though I am joking about the rules of the Carolinas, there is some truth in these “rules,” especially when it comes to listening to country music. I fall into the category of people who can listen to country music but don’t necessarily enjoy it. Because of this, I have a relative knowledge about the different country singers and songs which everyone loves. As I studied for today’s blog in Philippians 2:19-21, I couldn’t help but think of a popular country song by Toby Keith entitled, “I Wanna Talk About Me.” The chorus of this song is: “I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about I, wanna talk about number one oh my me my. What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see. I like talking about you, you, you, you, usually, but occasionally, I wanna talk about meeeeee. I wanna talk about me.”