epiphany

I got one of those cheapass knock-off MP3 players for being on the same job for 10 years and I had a buddy load some stuff on it, which he gladly did.  I was in the middle of some mundane, git it done project when Robert Earl Keen's "Christmas from the Family" came on.    I don't know why I had to put every thing down and laugh myself silly, but the song just struck a very deep chord as a true portrait of what sort of stock I came from.  I pretend to be refined and genteel, but truth be told,  I have spent several Christmases making a run to the Kwik Mart with my cousins for Busch Lite, some margarita mix, a box of tampons and some Salem Lites.   Of course, it does help to watch the video a few times to really get the picture, since the guy who plays the singer's brother in the song bears a scary resemblance to yours truly.    The reason that I found this little ditty so deeply funny is that after spending a lot of time with my cousins this summer, I realized that my extended family story looks more like "Raising Arizona" than "The Waltons."  I have 2 cousins who have, or are doing hard time.  I have 6 cousins who have, or are serving in the military and 2 of them graduated from service academies and even a couple who are drawing disability long before they are able to retire.  Upper crust indeed.      I'm taking that little moment to mean that I should be happy with who I am and where I came from and that the so-called "riff-raff" in the family makes for a great story and for a source of pride, because, even though I know how to clean up good, sometimes that "eye of the outlaw" shows up in me and the best thing I can do is hope that I don't get caught...   even if I was wearing a panty-hose on my head.   Thanks Robert Earl for telling my family story so well that it makes me giggle even as I write this.