Almost nine years ago, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and did great damage to New Orleans, where I grew up. The Crescent City’s “Ninth Ward” was one of the hardest hit areas. It so happens that the Ninth Ward is where my high school, Holy Cross, was located.
I was just sent a link to the two-minute YouTube video below, that has joined aerial shots of the old Administration building with some eerie minimalist music. The words Jerusalem desolata est came to mind, as did the words of Psalm 78, “they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.”
I spent eight years of my youth in and around that building and its pleasant environs. It was teaming with life and activity. Now it is a ruin, a carcass. It is a meditation on the loss of all things.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN_HAXOTUus
The school has rebuilt at a new location, and is now larger than it ever was.
