Elmore Magazine - Kickin’ in Your Stall
Tuesday November 1st, 2005 @ 9:01 PM
Filed under: Everything, Publications
Winking At the World
My stepson, Levi, is sixteen and fascinated with zombies, insistent that I watch one of his zombie movies. I was bored into stupefaction. Each of my eyes looked like a bowl of tapioca pudding with a cherry in the center.
Zombies, as far as I can tell, are human beings who are driven by some weird survival instinct while being otherwise devoid of all personality. In some cases they have been inadequately resurrected from the dead. They seem to do things as a mindless, conformist gang. I know this much: I don’t want to be one and neither do you.
As a society, that is why we love our musicians. As a nation that is why we treasure New Orleans. The American root music culture of New Orleans, so flamboyantly and grandly displayed, gives personality to a great task and toil population.
Everyday societal functions can become tedious as we labor at dispassionate jobs to put bread on the table. I’ve certainly been there. I once had a job breaking up concrete curbs with a ninety-pound jackhammer. After three straight weeks of this, I had become a zombie. To get through a day I had to take on the mind set of a dog chained to a post, otherwise I’d have just sat down on the curb in the hot sun and cried like a baby.
The great American mythologist, Joseph Campbell, explains why we common human beings will jeopardize our lives, our well being, even the well being of our families, to rescue a total stranger in dire straits. “It is because at the core of our being, we recognize that we are one.” We share a common life source, inhabit the same tiny planet in a gargantuan, mysterious universe, and we feel each other’s fears, loves, and sufferings. We are intimately identified and inextricably bonded. Disaster forces us to think about this and express it.
After 9/11 we applauded and worshipped our fireman and policeman, because they showed the world that human beings have within themselves prodigious courage. They made us proud to be human especially as a counterpoint to the terrorists who made us ashamed of our nature. The twin towers rescuers declared by example to mankind and to each of us individually: we humans can be beautiful, and profoundly noble.
In a different kind of disaster, Hurricane Katrina bludgeoned the smile off the face of society and ripped the twinkle from its eye. It assaulted that part of us that is fun, playful, and delightfully creative, in short, our collective personality. There is no city in America that can wink at the world with the panache of New Orleans, and in so doing unveil our roots, soul, and poetic charm.
The very mention of the name, New Orleans, tells the world that America is friendly as a wiggling pup, richer than Midas in music, and more fun than a tickling uncle. It can evoke the same response the chief bandit had in the movie Three Amigos when he grinned broadly and said, “I like these guys.” Are there any among us who aren’t proud of the contribution to America’s sum and substance that New Orleans music adds?
That’s why radio broadcasts, television reports, and newspaper articles asked about the state of musicians and music clubs. “Where is Dr. John, Fats Domino, Allen Toussaint, Harry Connick, Jr., Henry Butler?” The list went on and on. Many inquired about Professor Longhair who is long dead, but immortalized. The New Orleans music scene is of precious value to Americans and we don’t want to lose it, because in so doing we diminish such an integral and identifiable part of our collective character and we face the drudgery of our vicissitudes, like the zombies we don’t want to be. Among its many attributes, New Orleans is the twinkle in our eye.
Posted by Carl