Last fall, I asked Pico Iyer, travel writer and spiritual thinker that I followed for years, how he kept a feeling of hope in a troubled world.
Iyer approached several points, but his separation commentary is the one I remember most strongly.
“During the worst days of the pandemic,” recalls Iyer, “I was asked to speak to a local palliative care organization. At the end, the moderator asked me to offer some advice. I’m sure he expected something wise or sound or noble. All I could say was, “Make a walk. If the world does not seem better after you, you will certainly feel better. »»
A few days later, Ier’s words came back to me when my wife and I took a walk on weekends in the New Orleans’ Bywater district. Our friend, photographer Lori Waselchuk, was in town in business and we agreed to meet her for lunch.
It was the weekend when the pop singer Taylor Swift was in New Orleans, and I was not sure that I would be looking for traffic and the crowd. But we slipped easily into Bywater water, finding themselves on a section on Chartres Street which was pleasantly calm. At almost noon on a Sunday morning, New Orleans were still awake.
This is one of my favorite moments in the city, when the day arrives slowly, and the city was always sleeping from its eyes.
Distracted while we welcome stores and houses, wink, my wife and I have passed the restaurant. A family in the following block stretched his legs – a man and his wife with bicycle with their children aligned themselves like caneto on tiny bikes. I asked them how far we had passed in front of our place to have lunch.
Chuck Walker, a member of the Punk Rock Bedlam Hour group, was in New Orleans last fall for a performance. His T-shirt Franken Berry is a nod to one of the group’s songs, “Frankenberry Mash”.
“I’m not sure,” said the father of the brood. “But isn’t it a nice place to get lost?”
We had to agree. The autumn morning was wonderful, the light and indulgent sunlight.
Meanwhile, another man approached and proposed to consult his phone for instructions, thinking that they could be clearer than what I had found online. He was Chuck Walker from South Carolina, and we laughed a tourist helping a Louisiana guy to find a lunch place.
Chuck, I quickly learned, sings in Bedlam Hour, a group of punk rock that was in New Orleans for a concert. Chuck’s shirt sported the character of Franken Berry from popular children’s cereals, this is how Chuck praises one of the funny songs in his group, “Frankenberry Mash”. As part of performance, the group saved pieces of cereals in the public.
It’s only in New Orleans, I thought, I would take advantage of a Sunday morning conversation on children’s cereals in a street corner with a punk rock singer. These things sometimes happen when you go out for a walk.
This year, I plan to take more.
Send an email to Danny Heitman to danny@dannyheitman.com.