Black & Gold Forever

You’ve probably stepped back a minute, asking yourself why– why is there a picture of football players on a style blog?

Today, for the first time in many, many decades (like 40 years or something!), the Saints are going to the Superbowl. I have male friends in their 30s, who have been going to games lost their entire lives, who wept like babies when the Saints became NFC Champions, who have waited their whole lives for this moment.

But beyond that, there’s something more powerful going on in New Orleans.

There’s a feeling of hope, a feeling of change, a feeling that a miracle’s been slowly happening over the past few months.

For a city who has seen it’s share of devastation in the past 5 years, whose crime is still out of control as an aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, who watches its citizens get shot down in the most sacred of spaces out of desperation, rage, and fear.

A girl friend wrote this on her Facebook recently, and it really struck me…

On the streetcar this morn an old white woman starting yelling at an old black woman about ‘chatting on her cell phone too loud’ and they were about to rip each others eyes out when the noble streetcar driver walked down the aisle and said ‘ladies…. the saints are going to the superbowl’ and they both uttered an automatic ‘who dat’ and sat down peacefully. We could end the violence in this city!

Transitioning back to life in New Orleans has been difficult at times… but while I really couldn’t give two shits about football…it’s amazing to watch the impact this event is having on a hopeless city. Having beaten the challenges, difficulties, and injuries, that laid in their path, the underdog has made it to the Superbowl. It’s a wonderful metaphor for the problems and struggles that New Orleans faces on a daily basis, wrapped up in a black and gold bow.

It goes to show, all you need is Hope.