Julien Fountain

Have y'all seen any of the countless videos of Europeans in the U.S. for the World Cup that are flooding social media right now? They are the best, funnest things I've seen in forever. I've been brooding/depressed for the past couple of weeks, but seeing British people discover Buc-ees at 2:00 a.m. is just the absolute best palette cleanser. I just watched a young Dutch man who had rented a Dodge Ram truck and he's driving along, and he said "I've been driving for five minutes and I can't stop smiling. I'm driving a RAM pickup truck! In America! " And whoever is filming said "How sick is that?" and the young man said "FREEDOM FOREVER!" I watched a British couple who overnighted in Amarillo and the young woman was going on and on about how open and friendly Texans are. She said they were just walking down the sidewalk and they had three different conversations with various people. She said (paraphrasing)"That would never happen in Britain, where everybody is so reserved, almost depressed, and keeps to themselves." Mind you, I'm not saying that everything in the U.S. is so great or anything like that, just that it really does my poor old Texas heart good to see this place through the eyes of others. It's easy to get bogged down in fighting with one another (over things that are unimportant or even made-up issues) and not see the forest for the trees. This young Dutch man who was driving a RAM pickup truck that he'd rented was on a wide open highway, driving a vehicle approximately three times larger and three times higher off the road than anything he'd ever driven before --- and was positively giddy over something that we Texans take for granted. Watching these videos makes me feel a bit foolish, actually, for being down about some stuff that is ultimately inconsequential. Also, it appears that y'all are doing a really good job at making these folks feel completely welcome ---- which of course comes naturally to any Texan ---- to the point that some of them are saying things like "I never want to leave." When you think about it, tasty brisket sandwich at 2:00 a.m. is a pretty miraculous thing. Here's a little video that's sort of an overview of what I'm talking about. nitter.cf/OmilliTees/status/2065…