Disintegration

A little late here with the final entries from N.O. . . . there's not wireless access at the Days Inn in Villa Rica, GA. I'm back in New York and it feels like I see everything with brand new eyes. Truly, I was in a different environment the last week, one replete with sun, southern accents, Southern Comfort, and sweat. Thursday night, most of all, I sweat for beads . . .

At that night's Mardi Gras parade, I wanted these things so badly and for no reason other than that everyone else wanted them. Everytime a float rolled up, I felt the same mob mentality that must possess floggers in Karbala, rioters in Los Angeles, and tourists at Space Moutain. I'm a simple kind of man.

We departed on Friday and ate phenomenal barbeque in Mississippi. I was so glad we drove, in order to experience the vast expanses of nature that comprise our nation (towering trees and what not), until the distributor cap on Felicia's Honda Civic lost its way about 50 K outside Atlanta in the pitch black highway night. We broke down, I melted down, and the next morning, I shaved myself a goatee out of boredom and we all gathered around to watch Silence of the Lambs. Fortunately, what Paul attributes to karma shined on us, and two repair people worked the whole day to fix us up.

Pre goatee and Silence, the figurative door was left open about five or six times by some guy for me to buy whatever I wanted, including the area's apparently problem-inducing meth. He likened the local bar to Roadhouse, the film that got my favorite 75% French, 25% African friend Raymond's cable canceled back in 1987. To his offers in so-many-words I declined in so-many-words and waited it all out, starting to feel sketchy myself.

As an aside, though I appreciate the spirit of Paul's recently posted poem, the best poetry comes spontaneously. Please allow me share my favorite Paul poetry moment: "I didn't say I wasn't Catholic, I said I was an atheist." That's goodness and so was our trip, and most of all, the people we met, forever loving Jah--

-Matt

P.S. Image by Bosch, inspiration by New Orleans.

P.S.S. Also, once again, please check out http://www.commongroundrelief.org/ and http://www.reliefspark.org/ for more on the situation and on volunteering.