by Karen Frazier, Managing Editor
Paranormal Underground Magazine

I’ve always considered myself just a little bit of a Renaissance gal. I have a genuine enjoyment of many of the finer things in life. For instance, I have enough knowledge and appreciation of fine wines that I am a wine editor in one of my other jobs. I love to cook gourmet foods with ingredients like truffles and foie gras. I’ve read and enjoyed many of the classics. I write poetry. I have a genuine appreciation for the arts – classical music (I am a classical musician myself), opera, the theater and the visual arts. I love to decorate and my home is a nod to traditional styles of interior design. Some might suggest from these interests that I might even be the tiniest bit of a snob.

And yet…..

I also like redneck stuff. It’s its own kind of fun. For instance, I’m a sucker for a great demolition derby. I’ve recently discovered that I rather love to shoot guns. I’ve been known to enjoy less refined foods, as well – you know the kind – where the meat comes on the bone and the other main ingredients are white flour and salt. I have a profound love for cold Spaghetti-Os with sliced up franks that extends way back to college when I was broke and that was what I could afford. And now, we’ve got the latest redneck accoutrement. A giant, full-sized 4 x 4 with a quad cab.

It’s not our truck. Jim was involved in an accident in our Mitsubishi the other day with a student driver who apparently had a Jim shaped rubber stamp she was dying to use. She rounded a corner and sort of forgot to stop turning so that her 90 degree turn became a 120 degree turn straight into Jim. When we showed up to drop the Mitsubishi off for body work, the only vehicle in the stable was this big old American 4×4. Now I have the urge to adorn it with a gun rack, get dressed in a tube top, mini skirt and cowboy boots and drive through the streets of town shooting out the window and screaming, “Yeeeeeee Hawwwwww,” with a fried chicken drumstick in one hand and a beer between my knees.

This is the dichotomy that lives inside of me – Renaissance and redneck all at once. And I own it completely. Apparently who I am is a Renaissance redneck who enjoys not necessarily the finer things in life, but just life itself in all of its glorious variety. After all, who needs labels when we’ve got something even better – life – with all of its messy complexity. Maybe next I’ll discover I’m a little bit emo.

If you enjoy Karen’s blog, then check out her book Avalanche of Spirits: The Ghosts of Wellington which is available for sale from Amazon.com.