Texas settlers 1848
You might have royalty in your family tree, but if you go back far enough, they were all just people. People who danced and told stories around the fire, people who hunted with spears and plucked food from the ground.
Their world was full of spirits and the sun and moon were living things.
Modernity has mowed down or absorbed most of the “people of the earth” at this point.
Somewhere along the line, we decided those ancestors were barbarians, savages. How embarrassing.
When I watch them I can’t help but feel like they have something we don’t. We, being the citified folk whose bare feet never touch the ground.
We’re civilized now, don’tcha know. We have running water. We wear shoes. Meat comes from stores, cut into pieces and neatly wrapped. Hunting is only for sport.
There are so many layers between us and the ground we can’t tell what’s real anymore.
I’m mostly thinking city culture and modern living. Losing the idea of the family farm even. These days you never have to touch soil with your bare skin if you don’t want to.
I grew up in the country. I wasn’t surrounded by unspoiled nature, but by farms and ranches. Most of my settler ancestors left that life a long time ago. Still it felt like the land was ours.
We went barefoot in the summer and swam in rivers and stock tanks. We climbed barb wire fences and went fishing in creeks.
Now I’m a city person of sorts. It’s not a large city, but I’m not country anymore. As I got older the culture began to chafe. I felt bored and restricted. I became disillusioned with the religion and politics.
I wanted to be sophisticated and modern. I refused to listen to country music out of spite. It took decades to afford it but I needed to live in a city. And I was right. It’s the closest thing I can get to finding a tribe. But something is missing. I get sadder about it every year. I didn’t understand how much I needed the country. And city people who never had it just know they’re missing something.
We gained a lot when we built our civilizations. But it came at a cost and I think we know it.
I’m a native Texan. These days we’re mostly just regular Americans.
But there was a time when we were something else. We had customs, an accent that’s growing less common.
We also used to hand folk songs down the generations. We had family members who could play the fiddle.
We gave most of that up so we could become modern. Nashville reminds us of what we gave up. It’s not the same. But at least now we get to have air conditioning.
I have a Norwegian friend who reads folk tales religiously, reads them to his kids. Some of them are quite dark and they can get nightmares. I have nothing like that and I’m jealous.
I suspect that drive explains the rise of New Ageism and practices like neopaganism. We’re trying to reestablish something.
Late Boomer's Den 
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