Monday, February 8, 2010

What's Natural In New Orleans

Who Dat Family?

I have a son
Who is the most fun
He lives to throw parties.
He has some friends
Who are so close
They’ve combined their names
And are now the Yardies.

When Dave returns
With his new son
And his girls – all three
The family name
Won’t be the same
It will then be become
Family Mayardy.

Dave has always been
With them in spirit
While stationed in Italy
He’ll serve our nation
Where duty sends him
But with the Yardies,
He’d rather be.

Scott and Sam, their kids
And the wives
Buffy and Michelle
Are waiting with breathe
That is baited
To welcome back
Dave and Joelle.

New Orleans has long been called "the city that care forgot." Only people who have never survived in a mosquito infested, hurricane prone swamp,in one hundred percent humidity and one hundred degree temperatures could think that care bypassed New Orleans. It's not that New Orleanians don't have cares; it's that it takes some powerful celebrating to erase the pain of ever-impending catastrophic loss.

New Orleans is a predominantly Roman Catholic town. No matter what religion you start off with, if you live in New Orleans long enough, you become a little bit Catholic. It's in the blood and the water; New Orleanians work hard, pray hard, play hard. Mardi Gras is actually the beginning of Lent, the season of self-denial. Nobody celebrates like Saints fans.


There's a huge system of archdiocesan parochial schools. It's an accepted part of the cost of living that middle class families send their children to Catholic schools. The archdiocese cancelled school for the day after the Superbowl,and cancelled evening church services on Superbowl Sunday so that the fans could properly celebrate the Saints. The priests were also given permission to wear Saints jerseys over their ritual vestments.
There was even a rumor going around that the pope flew the New Orleans Saints flag in place of the pope's coat of arms in Vatican City.

There is no way I'd have ever forgiven myself if I hadn't been here for this moment in history. Richard and I spent three years after Hurricane Katrina helping our Louisiana and Mississippi friends lick their wounds and crawl back to having a sense of home. I just had to be here for their victory party. It almost erases the pain of having lost our homes.

We've been criticized for leaving, but someone needed a serene place to process the pain that we all felt. We lost our stuff, our neighbors, our jobs; but we still had our family -- and they were not whole. Now they feel whole.

I knew we were going to win the Superbowl. God promised he wasn't ever going to flood the world again. He flooded our world over four years ago, and this was His way of making it up to us. Anyway, that's my take on our win.

Who Dat say they gonna beat them Saints?