Monday, January 25, 2010

We Dat

Sure, it's just a football team, just a game. But there is nothing in life quite like the feeling a loser has when he wins. It's the sort of thing that can change a life, by going all the way down to where identity is formed. Right now, it feels like the sort of thing that can change the course of history for a whole people. Failure as an identity is the severest handicap of all. To get a glimpse of what life is like as a winner after a lifetime of failure (real or, sometimes even more difficult, imagined) can be transformative. Not as inspiration, but as identity. That what the Saints win means for all of us Who Dats - the intoxicating feeling of success is a good in itself but it also brings a sense of hope that we can change for the better. As a community act, the city's celebration of itself last night and now has maybe already changed us by giving us a sense that in our individual and collective identity we're not failures after all, we're just us, and that's feels pretty good just now.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 27, 2010 at 3:53 PM

    Now, all you politicians take note. We are New Orleanians. After this game, we hugged each other. We didn't stop to think about whether we should hug a black, white, male, female, gay, lesbian, straight, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative. WE ARE NEW ORLEANIANS. That's enough. Take heed and do not try to divide us because we are united by the one thing that you must see if you want a leadership position in this town. That one thing is home. This is our home and only we can sense why. I use the verb "sense" rather than "understand" because I don't think we do understand it. But I know that I felt as safe in that crowd walking down the ramps of the Superdome as I do in my backyard. Why? Because I was home with my extended family. Let people in other parts of this beautiful country wonder, "How can they live there?" We like to hear that and we can't explain it but we are always inviting folks here to taste it. So, candidates, don't forget who we are because, just like the game Sunday night, we certainly aren't going to forget it.






    Your servant,

    P

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