Facebook almost got me again.
There was a pic of Willie and a question "Do you like Willie Nelson?"
Are you kidding me? Do I like puppies and kitties? Do I like a frosty 'rita on a hot summer day? Do I like the view from Enchanted Rock? What kind of question is that?
Moreover, I saw a couple of my friends on the "like" list.
So I hit like and I'm immediately informed I just liked not Willie, but "Country Music Nation."
I hit unlike and buzz over to the FB page "Country Music Nation" and find boatloads of people and things I despise. I am not a country music fan but I am a Wille fan.
Willie's songs are complex and soul-grabbing. His voice is distinctive and his picking is as easy to pick out of a crowd as his scroungy old guitar.
But most important, he's one of the kindest, sweetest, most gentle human beings I've known in my life. Oblivious to his celebrity. Generous to young pickers.
Willie left Abbott, Texas, but never turned his back on it. He could stand up for family farmers and migrant farm workers at the same time. He stood up for the American Indian Movement.
Like Willie?
I first met Willie one night when I was a college student working the door at Armadillo World Headquarters, and I almost bounced him out of his own concert because I did not know who he was. Mortifying for me; amusing for him, and he did me a number of big favors after that inauspicious beginning.
Like Willie?
I would cross broken glass barefooted for Willie.
Don't use his image to generate "likes," Country Music Nation. He's so much better than you.