The Door To Happiness
There’s all the news to write about – the flood gates that are shaking so bad they are not working as reported today – the young man in the Sunday obit raised in Chalmette who took his life at 34 years of age leaving behind a daughter he loved – a friend’s husband fired after 17 years – yes, there is this kind of news to write about or not…….
Late this afternoon it was decided indeed that my alternator needed to be replaced and one is being ordered and so delay delay delay. Late in the afternoon, I walked the Bean around the bayou. Two men were fishing off the Dumaine Street bridge and one pulled up a significant fish just as the Snake was rounding the bridge with Renny. We asked him what he had there, a sheepshead? I said you know, I heard recently that the biggest sheepshead ever caught was caught right in this bayou. One of the men said no way, this is not saltwater and no sheepshead gonna be in here. The Snake said well it is brackish. And the other fisherman said, well I ain’t gonna catch no redfish in here that’s fo sure. I said if you did, I’d be fishing alongside you.
The Snake had to run off and get brown sugar so I walked alone with Arlene. A woman came out to her porch and yelled “kitty kitty kitty” many times, and a dog came running to her. On the other side of the bayou, I heard a bagpipe playing from the second story porch of a big house that was having the roof redone. A woman in a glider made mechanical clicking noises as she moved slowly back and forth on her porch. Slup slup slup – mullets jumped out of the water and slapped the water noisily on the way back in. Out again. In again.
A colleague of mine called today and without hello said, “are you all right?” – yes I said, relatively speaking, why? – he said I just had to get in touch because I was recalling something you said last time I saw you, and then I was thinking about you in New Orleans, and then I felt like I needed to get in touch. I said providence had intervened on my road trip that I was starting out on today by way of a faulty alternator. And I asked him about how he is doing. It’s been five years since his wife died of cancer. She was one of the best reporters for Off the Record and he was and is a talented musician. As she underwent chemo, he stepped in to help her with her job, doing her interviews, working up her grids and writing the reports till eventually he did her job. He has been doing it ever since and is only now an occasional practicing musician – albeit among the best harmonica players in the country.
When she died, OTR created a special award in her name for outstanding reporters – I won the award early on. I’ve thought about her – how close she was to the people in this firm, at a time when people could be so close because we were small and growing our business. I asked R how he is doing and he said not good. I said how long does it take to get one’s life back together and he said I don’t know.
Today after 8 hours I was called by Veterans Ford to say my alternator was dead and I needed a new one which they would have to order for me. I could have said, DUH!” but I thought it could have easily been worse – I could be in Alabama with the Bean at some Days Inn because my alternator broke, I could be paying $1200 like my brother is doing on his Bimmer for a new one if mine weren’t under warranty, there are so many worse scenarios.
I can’t imagine if I had lost Steve to death – how would I ever have come to any closure. Or if any of my loved ones had suffered loss of life during Katrina or now or anytime before a good ripe old age. It can always be worse, so chose happiness whenever you can, since it is your focus that determines it most days. And something I have been thinking about a lot today – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.