xan

I watched over 11 hours of coverage yesterday from the comfort of my home in New Jersey. For the past year, I've kept vigilant attention on the stories the major and sub-major news reporting services have aired on television and radio. I've also returned many times to New Orleans to provide what little support and encouragement I can to my family and friends who still live and work hard to maintain their desperate grasp on the life they love and the culture that nourishes their souls.

While so much has and will be written about special and dedicated individuals who appear to be going above and beyond to ensure the recovery, the overwhelming collective demonstration of joy, pride and respect was a transcendant moment. The trite comparisons to "Super Bowl" or "Olympics" only served to highlight the inadequacies of our current cultural reference points for such an experience. Part defiance, part orgasmic release, part long held embrace, the visible transmuted into a longing for a deep connection like what those at the Dome experienced last night.

The announcers and commentators vainly tried to capture with words what the camera simply streamed into those at home's consciousness.

However, what everyone missed last night is that New Orleanians are rebuilding the culture that can allow this kind of cross connection among seemingly disparate enclaves of people. Music, food, literature, art, architecture and the soul to live an enriched life are the building blocks of New Orleans, not cinderblock and stucco. The process HAS to be organic, not "intelligent design." Recovery eminates from the inside.

Jazz, Blues, Creole cuisine, revival style architecture and the joy of shared expriences all sprung
from the seemingly desolate. What we who truly know is that the best is yet to come.

Calvin: "I wish I was a Tiger."
Hobbes: "Common lament."