I hear it, warming up, most every afternoon now.
There is spirit that moves that engine...in a world of artifice and excess, that force is authentic, it is genuine, it is real. And it roars.
The beat of that engine carries over much of the city, you can hear it at distance, it comes in low in the torso, the beat meets your heart and your heart vibrates with it, amplifies and it moves you...
I heard the beat of that engine before I was born, danced to it before I could stand, moved irresistibly to it every time I've heard it since I got up on two legs.
Life isn't easy for alotta people in New Orleans. In my neighborhood, life is outright hard for most folks. Like the man said... "This ain't no make believe. You all know struggle. Everybody's struggling."
Still, the engine struggles on, the engine marches on. The engine roars.
That engine is warming up right now, a couple blocks over from my house. I can hear it, the pounding beat limbering up, that force comes from here and is made here...
See, it's not just a marching band, there's alot more going on here.
...all of your cares, all of your worries, I don't care if you just had something very tragic that happened to you in your life, once that band gives you that down beat...just for that brief two or three minutes you forget every problem you had. You have no cares in the world...Yeah it must be nice to live like that, with no cares in the world...
- Wilbert Rawlins Jr.
Yeah, it's not just a marching band, there's a whole lot more going on here.
It's a lucky dog that's got this spirit as a part of my life. Cheers.