So, I was listening to Tim Miller and Jan Coaston’s discussion the other day on the Bulwark Podcast about living in red states when you’re blue to the bone. They comforted me as I look forward to my move back to Texas in the fall.

Many times, people ask me what I miss most about living in Texas, and besides the obvious (family, HEB, TexMex), in the top 5 of things I miss is my Unitarian church in the heart of Big D. It’s such an island of like minded individuals and I know for sure that the heart of Dallas is even more like minded these days than they were when I left the place 19 years ago, just based on the elections that have occurred there recently. I know Houston will be even more like-minded, as H-town is a world class city with a more diverse population than the rest of the big cities in Texas (at least that’s my belief from what I’ve observed).

Toward the end of the discussion on the podcast, Tim explained why he and his husband moved from San Francisco to New Orleans. Tim enjoyed the many like minded people in San Fran, but he was a graduate of LSU and has many long time friends in NO and he’s finding the time he spends with them refreshing and wonderful. He said that much of his life in San Fran was spent in protest and anger. Now, he is still protesting, but the times with friends is creating a balanced for him. He’s able to “reformulate and renew the bond that is bigger than politics.” And that, as he said, “is the sweet spot….living in the blue part of a red state.”