Mardi Gras and Possibility

It is Mardi Gras in my hometown.  To those not from our community, Mardi Gras is nothing but women baring breasts, men getting drunk, and people of all inclinations pinching rounded asses.  Well, a fair amount of that definitely happens, but much more happens as well.  

Mardi Gras is a time for comradeship as well as revelry.  Yes, we go kind of wild, but we have lots of good fun, friendly competition as we dive for throws(at least, most of us), and fellowship with our neighbors.  Mardi Gras season is one of possibility and fantasy.  For one time of the year, people abandon their daily lives--lives often filled with boredom, frustration, and care  The time is one of possibility.  A quarterback can be a king of the grape.  Ordinary citizens can don masks and reign as monarchs.  Regular businessmen can toast the crowd and hurl what--on any other day--would be worthless trinkets at people.  Later those trinkets are often donated to charities for resale.  

Mardi Gras is a day of escape but also one of possibility.  We dare to dream and hope that our dreams will come true.  That point has been driven home this year in a poignant way.  Many of our Saints players and their coach will reign as monarchs or grand marshals of the parades.  These men elevated their team from the depths of obscurity to the pinnacle of success.  The Saints--once the laughingstocks of the NFL--are now NFL champs , and our whole region made the NFL back down when they tried to appropriate our local slang.  

Mardi Gras is a day of hope and of escape.  It even gives hope to a high school English teacher and fledgling author trying to perfect her current projects.  It gives her hope that dreams come true as she forms into words the new projects pounding through her brian.