Thursday, August 26, 2010
New Orleans is a blessing
You may have noticed that the past few day's I haven't been writing up any lengthy reports. I'm too busy living in New Orleans. Words can't capture the experiences. Greater writers than I have tried to describe what it is like to be alive in this wonderful city and they've failed. What dram of insight can I add?
I'm not despairing at my lack of ability. Rather, I am reveling in it. Bombarded with so many sights, smells, sounds, tastes, changes in air pressure and temperature... Blinkered by sudden shocks and delights and mysteries around every corner... Besotted by kaleidoscopes and cornucopia and cacophony in the light of day and the dead of night... I am rendered dumb by the mixture of joy, beauty and resilience that courses through New Orleans' neighborhoods, main streets, side streets, alleys and concourses. The tap rooms and living rooms, the shops, the libraries, the front porches, the riverfront, the parks, the markets, the offices and their lobbies...all of New Orleans is soaked through with the sustaining ether that pervades every action and every moment.
Rather than write, I live for the moment in the moment. I am delirious, dizzy and devil-may-care. If a city can be a sinful place, New Orleans is a blessing. I am not debauching or pursuing hedonistic, libertine delights. I am going about my business, running errands and sharing conversations with my fellow citizens in this most delightful metropolis in the whole, wide world, a place where the mundane is magical and the miraculous is more common than pennies on the sidewalk.
If you've never been to New Orleans, everything you've heard, positive or negative, is true but bigger, better, more robust and vibrant. If you've spent an hour here, you know what I'm talking about. If you were sitting next to me we'd nudge each other and wink in agreement.
'Nuff said.
WK
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