Blogging On

How and when does one move forward in a medium when that medium has gone through such a jolt as the passing of one of its anchors. I only knew Ashley Morris through his blog and through a few private email exchanges, but I have been hard-pressed, unmotivated, and somewhat unenthused about returning to my own blog and to do something with it. It's almost like my blog withered and died along with Ashley. But I know it hasn't. I know I still have things to say. And I know that Ashley would want me (would want all of his fellow bloggers, for that matter) to keep saying.

But the mourning has yet to run its course. First and foremost, there is a great need to help his family pick up the pieces of this tragedy and plan for the inevitable "nexts." rememberashleymorris.com is one vehicle through which one can help. Please consider helping however you can.

I have thought of Ashley every day since we were crushed by the horrible news. I spent all day yesterday, Saturday, at the Lusher Charter School annual crawfish boil. I don't know this for sure, but I gathered from some circulating commentary at the crawfish boil that Ashley was perhaps a Lusher Parent. I can imagine the Lusher crawfish boil as an event that Ashley would be drawn to. Regardless, the fact is that I thought of Ashley yesterday and imagined him there. And I wondered if his children were there, too, trying to have some Saturday fun in what must be anything but a fun Saturday for them.

Today, I went to another community festival event: Celebracion Latina. We were at Lawrence Square on the corner of Magazine and Napoleon. There was some fabulous music and dancing. And one of those infamous mobile taco trucks set up and served some delicious food. And I thought of Ashley being there, too, and just soaking in another part of the diversity of this great city he called home. A man just doesn't subscribe to the Cuban Revolutionary Newspaper Granma and not have a soft spot for his Latino brothers and sisters.

I'm sure I'll think about Ashley often. And probably mostly on this very blog. No doubt more often than I ever did before. Will being a NOLA blogger ever be the same? How do we NOLA bloggers move through this? If the cause of this dilemma were the death of any other NOLA blogger, Ashley would no doubt be the first to walk us through this. But fate is cruel and we don't have him here for that now. So I guess we'll just have to figure this one out on our own.