A beautiful day in New Orleans

The sunny is shining. The sky is blue. And the Saints are playing this afternoon.

If I had my camera, I'd post a picture. But it's missing, most likely due to me leaving it somewhere while my attention was focused elsewhere within the project. One of the graduate students Abbey said yesterday that I need a personal assistant.

The winning record of the Saints this season makes a lot of folks around here very proud and happy. I know locals who aren't deep into football, but they get into it when the Saints have a home game in the Superdome. The past 24 hours, I've seen people crowd around each other chanting: "Who dat! ... Who dat!... Who dat say they gonna beat them Saints?!!!" (trust me, it's not standard english but it's linguistically correct).

Last Sunday I attended morning mass at St. Leo the Great, a Catholic church with a largely black congregation that now is home to several churches in the area. The congregations of the other churches have joint services at St. Leo, while the flooding damage in their home churches is being repaired.

I didn't attend any church services today, but for a few minutes it was as if I had. In line for breakfast at McDonalds this morning, two brothers (brothas) were behind me talking about God and interpreting the Word with each other. Basically, one was making the point that God sees the love in what you do, even if you don't get the results that you intend. Further, it's the love in the act, not just the act in isolation, that God wants to see.

I acknowledged that I was overhearing, and we joked together for a quick minute. But the wait in line was long, and the two of them decided to go next door instead and grab something from Rally Burger. As they were leaving, one turned back to me as I was still waiting to place my order. "I think you got what you needed though...." he said with a smile going out the door.

Yeah, I would say so.