Summer Vacation: Part 2

Okay, Internet here in the Balkans isn't all it's cracked up to be, so sorry about the delay in posting. I'll try to do TWO today to make up for it! But, well, no promises...

I would be remiss in detailing my travels through the USA this summer without at least touching upon Texas, where I found myself staying for the bulk of my vacation. Here, I was able to enjoy the rollicking adventures of : Stripmalls!



So, some yakhead got the great idea of zoning American cities such that houses and businesses were made miles apart, so the only way to get to your house to the market was to drive and so ginormous superhighways and epic parking lots were built and subsequently the stores were built even further away from the residences so that even more highways and parking lots needed to be built, and what you are left with is a neverending blight upon the American urban landscape. And what if you don't have a car? prepare to spend all day going on a single errand, either by foot or car it makes little difference. And the world wonders why America went to war in Iraq for oil.

So, when I do go to the USA, and Texas in particular, I always look forward to the one day my dad lets me visit his ranch, a tranquil zone of peace away from the frustrating hoopla of Austin urbanity. (Yes, one day only - not the closest of families as you may well infer.)





My dad raises Longhorn cattle. They are really quite beautiful creatures - the squareness of their frames, the softness of their eyes, and of course the grace of their lengthy horns give longhorns a sublime and majestic presence.





It's strange somehow that these animals should symbolize Texas, or anything American really. The beauty of the longhorns' grace comes from the fact that, despite their deadly armament, they restrain their power. They don't blunder along skewering every little animal they see. Yes, they could kill you with a mere swing of the head, but they don't - and thereby the threat of their power becomes that much more pronounced and one tends to be that much more wary around them. It's an attitude America could learn to emulate.