On the proper foundation of a burrito and community

This week, I spent some time in Kerrville. You might remember, at least they hope you remember, they didn't have a particularly celebratory Fourth of July.

But this week, they had a party. A senior center along the Guadalupe River just finished repairs, and the governor stopped at a luncheon to celebrate the work volunteers did.

You can hear from the governor, volunteers and the director of the Dietert Center in this week's podcast. They marked a milestone, but the podcast is celebrating a milestone, too: Now that it's iconic and in its second season, it's now available on Apple, too.

"Texas Correspondent is available wherever you get your podcasts," a commercial might explain. "As long as you get your podcasts from Spotify or Apple.

The governor said Kerrville can celebrate its resilience and unity.

That phrase came up when I was talking to the director of the center. We both agreed it was a concise and memorable way to describe the Hill Country's response to the flood. It just happens she and I were unified, if you will, in our inability to remember the word, "unity."

Volunteers from Spectrum and Hunt.Fish.Feed fixed hundreds of burritos in the kitchen.

They summed up a piece of the human experience we all struggle with, whether we dealt with a natural disaster or not: "I can't tell you the importance of the proper amount of cheese."

His associate disagreed. "It all starts right here, sir. A proper scoop, the foundation of it all."

That's the kind of bon mots you can expect to hear in the podcast.

I talked to the mayor and some volunteers who said they're grateful so many people came running after the flood. I was at a Pat Green concert at Globe Life Field in Arlington where he raised more than $1 million. They all said it was nice to see so many people work together on their behalf, but one of the volunteers echoed folks I see at 9/11 memorial events every fall, saying it's kind of sad it takes something like this for us to stop arguing about politics.

But they also say a luncheon like that can show they're not being forgotten. They're looking forward, now, but a lot of areas are still cleaning up.

The governor, without discussing a political hot-button like burrito layering, suggested the community coming together was, in fact, a stronger foundation than a scoop of meat. He did the coin flip before a high school football game a few miles away in Ingram earlier this season. Last weekend, that high school won its first playoff game since 2014.