I believe that the Society's main purpose is to search for ways
to preserve folklore without embalming it, and to present a fairly
well-educated public with the treasures of their culture's folk
life. I do not believe that our purpose is to proliferate esoterica
and pedantry among a small, specially educated clique.
I further believe that the Texas Folklore Society's purpose is to
preserve and present the Folklore of Texas. This does not mean that
our purpose is to be chauvinistic or provincial, both of which are
brought about by states of mind rather than geographical locations.
It means, as Kittredge said so many years ago, that Texas really is
the folklorist's happy hunting ground, that we have all the fields
we can ever plow, and that the work and the room to work is as wide
as its borders and as inexhaustible as the winds that blow across
the Staked Plains. And this work should be done by those who know
the land and love it and understand it.
And finally, I believe that the purpose of the Texas Folklore
Society is not to hide the light of the lore under a bushel of
academic guidelines and definitions and scholarly verbiage but to
let that light so shine among men that all the world but, Lord, most
especially Texans may see the richness of the land and its people
and its history and its continuity. In this land and its people and
its history Texans must realize the place of their belonging, a
mother land to moisten with their sweat, and finally to nourish with
their bones.
