The road to Austin

Well, it turns out Mardi Gras made all the misery and out-of-placeness of our stay in New Orleans well worth it. Mingling in the streets with total strangers, riding the ferry from algiers and into unanticipated chaos, climbing onto adam’s shoulders to touch the floats like celebrity dolphins on a half-drunk hobo cruise… Yes, this is how i want to remember New Orleans.

We left promptly on Friday, as soon as Adam was released from his place of temporary employment. We were only two hours outside of the city when we reached Lafayette and decided we were far enough away to celebrate a new phase in our journey. New Orleans seems to me now more than ever like a kind of purgatory between the place i’ve called “home” and its uncharted afterlife. That said, stepping onto the porch of The Blue Moon Saloon & Guesthouse was like walking through the pearly gates and being welcomed by an indiscriminate association of family and friends i never knew. The night unravelled with great conversations, live entertainment, fleeting acquaintances, moments of pure joy and the refreshing sense of having finally finally arrived. Japhy made the evening with his magnetic demeanor, officially winning the title “best bar dog ever”. When not flashing his adorable grin and greeting passers-by, he was content to just chill under the table while we socialized. Yup, this one’s definitely a keeper.

We left early the next day, traveling along Louisiana’s Intercoastal Waterway to Houston, pulling over briefly to romp along the windy Gulf shores and comb for seashells. We stopped in Houston, for one reason and one reason only. It happens to be the unlikely home of The Rothko Chapel, a sacred, “total art space” dedicated to contemplation and positive action. Rothko has long been one of my favorite painters and abstractionists. With his commitment to “raise painting to the level of poignancy of music and poetry,” it’s no wonder I perceive his work not as art, but as a viewing experience, a subject of meditation. Rothko’s Chapel is the ultimate expression of this idea. The octagonal space, softly lit by partial skylights, consists of fourteen large canvases, painted black and hung to the artist’s specifications. It’s difficult to describe the effect that this one-room environment has on one’s senses. There’s a headiness, and for me, an almost primal urge to smile or weep–such that I can’t even choose between the two. Indeed, like listening to a song that touches so sweetly on the neglected strings of one’s life.

And that, friends, is how we now find ourselves in Austin. Hungry (we’ve taken to a diet of restaurant leftovers). Broke (the only way to leave New Orleans). Still homeless (joyfully so). With an ever-broadening concept of what it means to be “free”. We sail on the verge of something great.

… There’s the idea of bumping into experience and people while you’re wandering. You really are experiencing life that way. Nothing is routine, nothing is taken for granted. Everything is standing out on its own, because everything is a possibility, everything is a clue, everything is talking to you. It’s marvelous. It’s as though you had a nose that brought you into the right places. You are in for wonderful moments when you travel like that … - Joseph Campbell

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