When I was in college I was talked into visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
“It’s an experience you must have!” friends assured me.
The trip entailed an eight-hour ride in a filled-to-capacity van to a friend’s aunt’s home, where we slept on the floor. This to facilitate spending several days wandering through tightly — oh-so-tightly — packed streets of people wildly enthusiastic about beads, boobs, and booze.
It was, indeed, an experience.
Most of it is now a long, crowd-induced anxiety blur, but I do remember one beautiful moment: on a side street where the distance between people actually increased to more than arms-length, a street musician belted a bright melody on trumpet, and I was moved to dance.
I don’t know that one moment was worth the days of hassle, but, then again, I still remember it nearly twenty years later, so maybe so …
Cheers, New Orleans.
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