Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Malibu morning picture of the day - Ash Wednesday, Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,

It's Ash Wednesday today. Oops, I guess yesterday was Mardi Gras. Forgot to mention it. Hope you had pancakes for breakfast yesterday ...

Anyway, here's what it looks like out here this morning.
 
























Grey again. Similar to yesterday's picture, but God has a few more searchlights out on the waters to the south.

Turn to the west and you can see the blue breaking through.

Speaking of Mardi Gras, I lived and worked in New Orleans for one year in my early 20s. It was probably one of the poorest times of my life financially but one of the richest in positive life experience.



It was my first and only time  living somewhere other than Los Angeles, and it was as different from L.A. as a place could be.

One thing really different was that just about everybody I worked with was Catholic, and it was common on lunch hour to go out, go to noon Mass at one of the downtown churches, and then grab a quick bite to eat. I remember conversations about who had "the fastest Mass In Town!"



On the Ash Wednesday that year in sight in the CBD (Central Business District) had been ashed at lunch (the figure of a cross imposed on your forehead by a priest -- I really felt out as the token Presbyterian in my office).


This is probably the Rex parade in the picture below. A man in the office who was a member of Rex had ridden on the floats in the past said it was amazing when the float turned the corner onto Canal Street (the main drag)--that it was like the crowd-noise volume dial got turned mid-level all the way to the top.

Mardi Gras yesterday from the Times Picayune
He said he was heavily fined by his Krewe for pulling a pretty girl up on the float to dance with and then dropping her back off. (smiling all the time he told the story). He was a pudgy, 40ish, balding attorney, but that day he was a rock star. They are not supposed speak when they are on the float.

They also let us leave work one hour early in the week leading up to Mardi Gras because the streets shut down for parades every night. There were sometimes two a night downtown. I went to a few Mardi Gras parades. They are not as pretty as the Rose Parade, but you can't beat them for audience participation and people watching.

Geez, now that I think about this stuff, I am really missing the food ... wishing you all a meaningful time as we start into Lent.

Love,
Pops




Picture resources:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2013/02/ash-wednesday-look-at-the-ashes-but-think-of-the-fire/
http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2015/02/rex_king_of_carnival_reigns_on.html

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