Damn Right I Am
Today was the first day I have eaten yellow rice since it was used as a voodoo curse against me this past summer, and among other things it brought to my mind that I wanted to send out a general thank you to the NY voodoo priest who offered to come down here to New Orleans and take care of things for me and also to thank him for his advice and comments. The curse and the offer of help got me to thinking about things and my juices flowing in a way that was most conducive to if not mental health then just my overall happiness in that way I think is similar to Shelton when he is happy because he has pissed someone off, and that person has cared enough to respond, even if in a negative way. It's a way to break away from nothingness, which ain't always all it's cracked up to be.
And as for the supposed voodoo effigy against me--PeeWee hanging from a clothes line--what the priest said has come true only in that way you interpret, and that is pretty much all there is to say about anything. But the idea that a hanging effigy is meant as a curse that will follow the cursed could be seen as true in my case this way--Mama Gambles Kitchen, somewhat locally reknowned soul food establishment, at the corner of Iberville and Dorgenois, diagonally very close to the Rocheblave property, has recently morphed into a Botanical Shop/Spiritual Church which quite simply is modern day code for Things Voodoo. Not to mention the one in the 800 block of N. Broad which is very close to the Dumaine property. Of course, to suggest that either of these establishments has anything to do with me is beyond egotism and into the realm of paranoid delusion. And, this is a pretty good stretch of interpretation on any level because I think what the NY priest said was that "hanging effigies" meant the curse was meant to follow me wherever I went and not that voodoo shops are going to follow me wherever I intend to stay, that is Rocheblave. But I'm only here to report, speculation is my filler. Or vice-versa.
Speaking of priests, I haven't been able to consult with my cousin Jim, who I think may actually be a monsignor (I'm talking Catholicism here and this clarification is for you pagans out there), but his insights would be a crux of this matter because it was like that for me thinking it over back when I first had the offer of help from the NY voodoo priest. Which version of spirituality shall we choose today? I fear I may be too unattached from the necessary faith to make me the ultimate believer of anything, but that will always be the question for all of us: what do you believe and what are you willing to do about it?
Me, I believe all of it, which is similar but different from faith, and is also similar to disbelief. Sounds noncommittal, but that's not really true either.
It's like the street pushers you may have heard in New York, or Portland, or Denver, or Dallas, or Baltimore, or Philadelphia, or San Francisco, them that query simply--"lookin'?" And me thinking literally always have to pause, just briefly now in later age, and consider could they mean something else other than what I know they mean, because mostly my answer is "no," but very possibly if the product were of another nature my answer would be most adamantly, "Yes," and, "how much is it?"
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Today was the first day I have eaten yellow rice since it was used as a voodoo curse against me this past summer, and among other things it brought to my mind that I wanted to send out a general thank you to the NY voodoo priest who offered to come down here to New Orleans and take care of things for me and also to thank him for his advice and comments. The curse and the offer of help got me to thinking about things and my juices flowing in a way that was most conducive to if not mental health then just my overall happiness in that way I think is similar to Shelton when he is happy because he has pissed someone off, and that person has cared enough to respond, even if in a negative way. It's a way to break away from nothingness, which ain't always all it's cracked up to be.
And as for the supposed voodoo effigy against me--PeeWee hanging from a clothes line--what the priest said has come true only in that way you interpret, and that is pretty much all there is to say about anything. But the idea that a hanging effigy is meant as a curse that will follow the cursed could be seen as true in my case this way--Mama Gambles Kitchen, somewhat locally reknowned soul food establishment, at the corner of Iberville and Dorgenois, diagonally very close to the Rocheblave property, has recently morphed into a Botanical Shop/Spiritual Church which quite simply is modern day code for Things Voodoo. Not to mention the one in the 800 block of N. Broad which is very close to the Dumaine property. Of course, to suggest that either of these establishments has anything to do with me is beyond egotism and into the realm of paranoid delusion. And, this is a pretty good stretch of interpretation on any level because I think what the NY priest said was that "hanging effigies" meant the curse was meant to follow me wherever I went and not that voodoo shops are going to follow me wherever I intend to stay, that is Rocheblave. But I'm only here to report, speculation is my filler. Or vice-versa.
Speaking of priests, I haven't been able to consult with my cousin Jim, who I think may actually be a monsignor (I'm talking Catholicism here and this clarification is for you pagans out there), but his insights would be a crux of this matter because it was like that for me thinking it over back when I first had the offer of help from the NY voodoo priest. Which version of spirituality shall we choose today? I fear I may be too unattached from the necessary faith to make me the ultimate believer of anything, but that will always be the question for all of us: what do you believe and what are you willing to do about it?
Me, I believe all of it, which is similar but different from faith, and is also similar to disbelief. Sounds noncommittal, but that's not really true either.
It's like the street pushers you may have heard in New York, or Portland, or Denver, or Dallas, or Baltimore, or Philadelphia, or San Francisco, them that query simply--"lookin'?" And me thinking literally always have to pause, just briefly now in later age, and consider could they mean something else other than what I know they mean, because mostly my answer is "no," but very possibly if the product were of another nature my answer would be most adamantly, "Yes," and, "how much is it?"
- jimlouis 12-05-2000 11:38 am