Ash Wednesday In Big Swamp City / March 2018
LEJ's Louisiana,
Yours Truly in a Swamp
Yours Truly in a Swamp
by Leonard Earl Johnson
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Yours Truly in a Swamp
Monthly e-column
Coming April First
"EASTER ON THE RIVER OF BOURBON STREET"
by
Leonard Earl Johnson
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
~ 2018 March ~
E-mail: Subscribe@LEJ.org
Archive: www.LEJ.org
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
~ 2018 March ~
E-mail: Subscribe@LEJ.org
Archive: www.LEJ.org
Meanwhile Back In America
"Hi ho, hi ho.
"Hi ho, hi ho.
It's off The Cliff we go.
No brains, no thought,
just the guns we bought.
Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho..."
~ L. A. Norma
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ASH WEDNESDAY IN BIG SWAMP CITY
On Ash Wednesday all over Louisiana, Carnival lifted its colorful cloak and revealed Lent's ashen smudge.
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| LEJ.org Before the Ashes Photo: Anson Trahan |
At The Cathedral,
business suits stood cheek-by-jowl with crimson capes and smeared-lipstick ladies awaiting priests dressed in the purple Vestments of Sorrow. They smeared the Sign of The Cross on each celebrant's forehead, with thumbs they have dipped in ashes of last year's Palm Sunday Palms.
business suits stood cheek-by-jowl with crimson capes and smeared-lipstick ladies awaiting priests dressed in the purple Vestments of Sorrow. They smeared the Sign of The Cross on each celebrant's forehead, with thumbs they have dipped in ashes of last year's Palm Sunday Palms.
Outside, on Jackson Square, and up and down the whole Sliver-on-the-River New Orleans calls 'high ground,' rain washed our sins away.
I have doubts about many theological things, but none whatsoever about Ash Wednesday. It celebrates our journey from ashes to ashes. On a path directed by Canon Law over forty-days of stony passage called, Lent, a time of man-made deprivation. The handiwork of theologians and politicians pulling together.
"Like it says in The Bible, when you mix religion with politics you get politics!" L. A. Norma said, descending to the snackbar on the lower deck of Amtrak's ole Number One, westbound.
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Lent is a joyles anticipation of Spring, the most joyful, loving, Godlike thing there ever was. Yet, by Cannon Law, Lent ~ not Easter ~ is the longest holiday in all of Christendom!?
"They do like their lashings," Norma exhalled.
If ever you need a reason to be suspicious of religious powers in politics ~ all religions and all politics ~ consider that fact.
"They do like their lashings," Norma exhalled.
If ever you need a reason to be suspicious of religious powers in politics ~ all religions and all politics ~ consider that fact.
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Spring, heralded by Easter, comes at the end of these forty Lenten days of fasting. So saith Pope Gregory's Calendar, the stick by which we measure all this ~ not too accurately, we note.
"What with the Moon and all those Stars moving around faster than the dogmatic eye can see," L. A. Norma says, looking out the train window.
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Easter brings an end to Lent's suffering. Also, budding trees and children's hands filled with fluffy chicks and bunnies, all rolling around like Easter eggs on the lawn.
Lenten-fasting repairs Winter's damage and Carnival's excess, and prepares us for Spring's rebirth. Like the jazzman and the bean-sprout say, "Blow the roof off the sucker!"
Lenten-fasting repairs Winter's damage and Carnival's excess, and prepares us for Spring's rebirth. Like the jazzman and the bean-sprout say, "Blow the roof off the sucker!"
Live Oaks outside our windows are a soft young green. Live Oaks don't dump their leaves till Spring's new buds arrive (as students of JFK's murder know). Then, overnight, they change from old dark green to young soft green.
Today, soft green rules Big Swamp City, and all the feeder rivers, bayous and swamps beyond. We old alligators lie on the banks in whatever sun we can find dreaming of Carnivals past, Easter baskets, and Spring.
L. A. Norma glanced around for the Train Attendant, then cracked open the hatch-door window to give her secret smoke greater egress, and asked, "Did you see that man on Mardi Gras day, in the headdress and mantle of an Egyptian Pharaoh? He wore a sign around his neck reading,
'WILL RULE FOR FOOD!'
'WILL RULE FOR FOOD!'
"I saw him again on Ash Wednesday," she said. "He was with a Cleopatra who took off her snake armband and held it to her breast. Delicately exposed, of course.
"We were at the Communion Rail, and I was close enough to see them mouth, 'Asp Wednesday,' to each other. I would not swear to this, but I think the Priest smiled." ~ LEJ.org 
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Copyright, 2018, Leonard Earl Johnson, All Rights Reserved
(A version of this story first appeared in 2004)
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© 2018, Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved.
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.JPG) Contact me if you want on the list that may get e-mailed. If you wish to read any month's column go to www.LEJ.org anytime. They are posted on the first of each month and polished for the next few weeks. |
Lagniappe du Jour
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"EASTER ON THE RIVER OF BOURBON STREET"
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| Royal at Kerlerec, Faubourg Marigny, NOLa / photo by Janis Turk |
LEJ's Louisiana, Yours Truly in a Swamp
is a monthly e-column @ www.LEJ.org,
and periodically at
Les Amis de Marigny, New Orleans,
publication of the
It is written by Leonard Earl Johnson
of Lafayette and New Orleans, Louisiana
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© 2018 Leonard Earl Johnson,
All Rights Reserved.
posted by LEJ's Louisiana | 7:16 AM
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