Spring/Champions • Sept 19 • EDITOR’S LETTER

With each September that arrives and each Texas issue that crosses my desk I have another unique opportunity to think about what this state means to me, one more hashmark under the “Years As A Guest Texan” heading (my sixth!).

Ten years ago almost to the day, I arrived in what was then my brand new home of Kobe, Japan, where I’d end up living for four years. One of the first commercials I saw on TV was for the new series of “Big America” burgers from McDonald’s, the first of which was the Texas Burger, featuring atop its all beef patty dijon mustard, relish, french fried onions, barbecue sauce, cheese, and bacon. I chuckled at the idea that these could be considered specifically Texan ingredients, as though it would be the burger that Texas would produce if allowed to create one of its own to promote itself around the world. But then I realized I didn’t really know what the ideal Texas burger would look like either. Years before I ever suspected I’d land in Texas, I knew one thing—plenty of people think they have an idea of what Texas is all about, and it’s hard to say that any of them are totally right or totally wrong.

We’ve got internationally-renowned barbecue, but also worldclass bites from dozens of different cultures. We might be known for handmade boots and cowboy hats, but also gave birth to Neiman Marcus and Tom Ford. We count iconic Texans Willie Nelson, Nolan Ryan, and LBJ among our ranks, but so too are Gene Roddenberry, Patrick Swayze, and Janis Joplin. And when it comes to the movies, take your pick—No Country for Old Men or Office Space? Bonnie & Clyde or Dazed and Confused?

In the short six years I’ve been here, I’ve come to realize Texas represents many different things to many different people. And despite that, or perhaps because of it, we can still generally all agree that the spirit of being Texan is universal—our geography, our ambition, our independence, our honor, our pride. Warts and all, show me someone who isn’t proud to say they’re a resident of the Lone Star State and I’ll show you a liar.