Jumpin in da Bayou

October 14, 2001

See the smile?

Ok, so it's a bit blurred, but I see the smile, and I see life.
I see joy.

Tomorrow I might see tragedy, I might shed tears, but that's tomorrow.

Meanwhile there is today.

Two weeks. Is it time that flies or do we just not take advantage of life, moment by moment?

Shall we step back a bit, and see a bit more context?

Shall we look for fear?

I don't see the fear. Do you?

Just what is it about this household?

I see the smile.

I love watching them smile.

It was a weekend of smiles, here and there, all across the country.

While three of us met at the river's edge, two more lounged at a resort in the desert.

It's not just that we have a household appetite that calls for frequent excitement. We chose to not live in fear.

Some of us have a lower tolerance for excitement than others, so when asked if she was going to join us, Mrs. replied that she had found a fabulous last minute deal including hotel and air-fare on the web. She was going to go off to Phoenix and spend the weekend with my daughter.

Not afraid to fly, she had a marvelous weekend with the daughter.

Ok, that's all well and good, but what does any of this have to do with a bayou?

"It was a strange spot to sleep in — a raft in the middle of a boiling stream, with a wilderness stretching on either side. The moon made ghostly shadows and showed H., sitting still as a ghost, in the stern of the boat, while mingled with the gurgle of the water round the raft beneath was the boom of cannon in the air, solemnly breaking the silence of night. It drizzled now and then, and the mosquitoes swarmed over us. My fan and umbrella had been knocked overboard, so I had no weapon against them.

Fatigue, however, overcomes everything, and I contrived to sleep."

The quote is from the diary project I am working on, from a section describing life while floating in a Bayou.

The timing seems right.

The price certainly is, round trip from Detroit to New Orleans for $188.

In two weeks I will be back in the archives, transcribing some of the diary author's works that I did not get to finish on the first trip. Then on Friday afternoon eldest daughter will fly in from Phoenix to spend the rest of the weekend with me. Seems that the same University that houses the diary has a law school that is up for consideration.

Go figure.

T, who is majoring in photography will bring her cameras and we will head north into Mississippi to photograph the bayou and some of the other scenes from the diary.

Prudently chose life.

Come on in.

The water's a bit chilly at times.

But the ride is fine.