Over New Orleans’ 287-year-long history, its inhabitants have employed a variety of phrases to greet folks on the street. Many have used the old stand-by, “How’d you do?” Others–including our city founders–have asked, “Boujour, ca va?” And of course, in the 9th Ward and beyond, they use “Where y’at?” Well, they used to….
These days, we’re back to “How’d you do?” It’s not quite the same as the original “How’d you do?”, which was always meant as a rhetorical question, with no proper response other than another “How’d you do?” The “How’d you do?” we’re asking today is past tense, and it refers to a specific event: “How did you do?” It’s also earnest. We really want to know how they did. Did their house flood? How much water did they get? Was anything salvageable? Where did you go? Are you coming back?
It’s a sudden, overwhelming, communal compassion that makes us ask, tinged with morbid curiosity. Funny thing is, the folks who’ve lost everything, they don’t mention it much. It’s those of us who did okay that’re the most curious.
Me, I ask because I’m holding out hope that my friends and neighbors across the city fared as well as I did. I know many of them didn’t, I know it’s stupid and naive and maybe even a little hurtful to ask. But if I keep asking, a part of me thinks that maybe people will just shrug and say, “Oh, we came out just fine. I’m headed to the Robert’s. You need anything?”, and life will go back to normal.
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