In Cahoots with Sunset and Yourself

The person you first and foremost need to be in cahoots with is yourself. While this might be self-evident to some, it’s a truth that too often escapes us in practice.

For all that we do in our daily, frequently frenetic lives, we tend to neglect our best friend – or the person who should be our best friend. Sometimes it hits hard when we discover the neglect.

We’re so busy trying to make our lives WORK – in careers, finances, and family and social needs that we forget to make our lives PLAY. We forget to take time to simply enjoy being alive – to dance, to sing, to listen to music, to appreciate art, to appreciate a friend, lover, or family member, to relish learning something new for its own sake, to catch the sunrise or watch the sunset, to be quiet and still, to meditate, to do nothing, or to savor small moments of joy. And aren’t these the whole point of life?

On a recent trip to Florida, I, along with several hundred others, gathered in the late afternoon in Mallory Square in Key West for no other reason than to watch the sun sink into the sea. A simple, yet profound event that comforts in its constancy and reaffirms our cahootism with ourselves and the world.

Parade for the Love of it

Everybody loves a parade, and in Louisiana during Mardi Gras season, there’s a whole lotta lovin’ going on. The love shows itself in so many ways…

…like the artistry, craftsmanship, and imagination of the people who develop parade themes and create the floats

…like the many hundreds of men and women who spend many thousands of dollars to join carnival ‘krewes’ and ride on the floats, have costumes made, and buy mountains of beads and trinkets to toss freely to spectators with outstretched arms and “Hey, throw-me-something-Mister” calls

– all for the Love of having a good time and helping others do the same.

And in some parades you might also see signs of a different kind of love…

…like the special new float that was in the February 23 parade of Dionysus in Slidell Louisiana designed to honor U.S. service personnel wounded in action. A symbolic soldier sits at its bow. The float was designed to allow wheelchairs to be situated next to its sides so the riders who used them could be close to the crowds.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the non-profit organization called the Military Advocacy Project of Louisiana, these service personnel “krewe” members rode for free. All the beads the riders threw had been donated by previous parade-goers wanting to give something back to these wounded heroes – proving that love really is recyclable.  In case there’s still any doubt, picture the spectator who stood near the float as it stopped and played for the heroes the National Anthem on his trumpet.

http://www.laadvocacy.org/ 

This wounded heroes float will appear in the parade of Selene in Slidell on February 28.

MAP of LA is a Military Advocacy 501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization assisting our Veterans and Active Duty Military with PTSD, TBI and suicide prevention.

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/madaboutcows/2270135272/”>MadAboutCows</a&gt; via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a&gt;

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“Be the change you want to see in the world.” M. Ghandi

Ahh! Valentine’s Day! Schmaltzy, right?  It’s for lovesick    puppies and school kids. It’s for sugary cards and flowers           – and  disappointment for those who aren’t on  the receiving end of them.

I say it’s time for a change.

We can still keep the cards and flowers and romantic love, but why not bring this special observation into the new age? Why not remove some of the commercialism and even corniness of the holiday and make it more real and inclusive?

In several countries, like Mexico, Valentine’s day is called the Day of Love and Friendship. In Colombia, September 19 marks the day for showing appreciation to wide circles of friends and family. (And although we don’t have to wait for any “special days” to express tender feelings, the special days do provide cover for some people who normally find it difficult to say “I care about you.”)

But why not use Valentine’s Day to promote cahootism within our local communities as well as across cultures?

Methinks there’s something afoot. Now, there’s even a Global Love Day on May 1 to celebrate humanity – a project of the nonprofit Love Foundation. (Hey, the flower children of the Sixties did have some things right.)

To take it one step further though: Why not choose Valentine’s Day to let someone into traffic in front of you or to do random acts of kindness, like paying the toll of somebody behind you? Why not do some volunteer work at a homeless shelter? Why not, without judging, really listen to someone who’s talking to you – even if, maybe especially if, he or she is of a different race, culture, creed, class, or opinion from you? Now that’s Love.

Make Food Not War

Make Food Not War

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

There’s hardly any disputing this old maxim, and we should consider that the stomach is also an important route for connecting cultures.

When I was more or less a citizen of the world for five and a half years, I always made it a point to eat the same food the locals ate – with only a few exceptions. I had learned quickly that to refuse to eat what was offered at my host’s table was to offend him or her, because what we eat is a big part of who we are.

Periodic celebrations in my adult ESL classes always include proudly displayed, student-made dishes from a wide variety of cultures. We’re all proud of our culinary fare and heritage, whether as a nation, a region, an ethnicity or a family.

We can begin to learn about and appreciate other cultural groups partially through experiencing some of their food and drink – whether we are physically present with them or only enjoying food of another culture in a restaurant or at home. We can savor people as our palates taste their cultures.

In cities today we have a wide range of cuisine choices available – from Thai, Japanese, or Brazilian to French, Creole, and soul food. We ship crab cakes and king cakes from one side of the country to another. These gastronomical experiences can be doorways to discover more about the people who produce them. At the very least we can, without prejudice, open ourselves to trying foods that are different from ours.

Without question, food is a convener and unifier. So when I was listening to The Splendid Table on New Orleans public radio station WWNO, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is a growing international movement of Culinary Diplomacy, with food ambassadors using cuisine as an instrument to create cross-cultural understanding and cooperation. You can find the transcript and hear more about it at

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/culinary-diplomacy-the-nexus-of-food-and-diplomacy

Food can make us all kin in cahoots. Felafel anyone?

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In cahoots is a good place to be…Carroll Devine

In Cahoots with Mardi Gras

If you’re lucky enough to experience New Orleans for the first time during the Mardi Gras season, you’ll likely have your eyes opened to a new reality and your heart to a new feeling.

Even as a New Orleans native, I find the reality and feeling nigh impossible to adequately describe. Videos might show you how it looks and sounds, but really, how can words transmit the spirit of self-abandon that reigns, or the prevailing tendency to dance like no one is watching?

How can I describe the way we forget our differences and rub elbows – uptown folks with downtown, working-class with middle-class, American Indians with Mardi Gras Indians, African-American with Latin-American, German, Irish and Italian-American, with Greek, Haitian Creole, and Caribbean descendants; musicians of every flavor with foodies of every style; religions of every tradition, lifestyles of every design?

Obviously I can’t. And just as obviously, I dare to say, this feeling – this universal acceptance of one-another in a unifying dance – is something we all crave in our guts.

In a good gumbo all the ingredients are blended together while yet keeping their own distinctive qualities. So, it’s my hope that this forum will be a delicious gumbo where we can explore the best in cultures and sub-cultures, at home and abroad, and learn to appreciate our differences as well as our similarities.

While I recognize that there are powerful forces at work striving to create distrust and discord among all peoples, I also realize that the best hope we have against a conflicted society is understanding and acceptance. At our core, we are all basically the same. When we can be in cahoots – in league – with one another, and with ourselves, we’re all enriched and we have a better world.

I have been a teacher of ESL (English as a second language) to adults from the world over for almost a dozen years. In our multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-aged and ever-changing micro-cosmic classroom family, we see beyond race, religion, politics, and class. We become friends, and practice what I call Cahootism. I see that through this forum, with the sharing of stories, information, ideas, and honest inquiry, the acceptance can be expanded to others. No political axe grinding here, as there are plenty of other places for that. Instead, I invite you to see how more of us can be in cahoots with one another.