Bittersweet

The HoW gathering in New Orleans is now an in-my-face priority, so imminent that I just checked-in for tomorrow morning’s flights delivering me to The Big Easy.

I wondered why the premium cable channel kept repeating the Spike Lee documentary, “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” and learned it’s because Saturday, September 4th is the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

That 4-hour documentary extended beyond Katrina and into the BP oil disaster, and ended with music and still photos of the storm’s devastation, of disfigured and bloated bodies, corpses caught in death poses trapped in rubble that either crushed or drowned them.

Saturday, I know my emotional baggage will be packed with the day’s historic relevance.

I sense it will seem a little surreal that 100,000+ people will be partying with no holds barred in ’the Quarter’ although the infusion of money is desperately needed.

I know I’ll find comfort in the company of writers whose work I respect (each, and all), now writing friends I’ve made here, and will be privileged to meet, there.