FINDING OUR WAY OUT OF LOUISIANA

The Louisiana, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, a parade in the streets, all streets, people everywhere, a Fat Tuesday, a time to eat, gluttony, gorging, gorgeous, gulp, to lick one's strawberry gloss coated lips. To have this joyous time all days of the week. How? To look at an idol, to disobey the 2nd Commandment of God's Tablets as given to us by Moses: we are not supposed to create an image or sculpture in the likeness of the skies, seas, or lands.

The 3rd Commandment? To honor our Mother and Father. So if we do not honor them, what happens to our relationship with God? To lose parental guidance and to lose the guidance of our Lord, the ability to love God, as we once loved our parents. To again love our parents and to then again love our Lord.

So whoop it up? A drunken New Year's Eve? To post one's celebrations of drinking at pubs into a stupor onto our Facebook page? To be proud of this drunken state and want to tell the world? What is your accomplishment, a slurred word? The next day a hangover?

Mardi Gras eye masks, coated in feathers, blue and purple and hot pink, only slits for eye openings, sparkles, feathers protruding like that of a vain peacock proudly arrogantly spreading his wings and long train tail. But it's all in the fun you say. Do you ask where to start and where to end? It's dust into dust. 

But this Mardi Gras is in the springtime, so we want to know why we are mourning now in the summer? 

Rosh Hashanah is approaching steadily, timely with sounds of the hooves of a steady horse, parties of the lunar calendar new year with hors d'oeuvres, to transform sadness into rejoicing. Can we wish upon a Rosh? Okay, wishing is fine, Miriam administered the Wishing Well. All waters we have to wet our lips, bathe and to wash our garments are from her. 

Who was Miriam? The oldest sister of Moses and Aaron. Never married, no children. The top Matriarch of the Matriarchs!  

Find your way home, out of Louisiana, to stop the sobbing, cease the moaning and groaning, not to be one of the artist Pablo Picasso's Crying Females. To beat Depression, to lick it in the bud. To have an eternal smile, to laugh after every meal. A hearty laugh, like that of Sarah's after she was told she was pregnant at the age of 99. To feel lovingkindness for our fellows and to do deeds of charity. 

Home "sweet" home? Sweetness is desirable. Yah. To add sweet pure sugar cane to one's morning coffee. To one's afternoon tea. This being desirable as well. To use this palatable sweetness on our lips to show affection and to honor God and our Parents.