TulaneLSU's Top 10 Mardi Gras house floats

Dear Friends,

Creativity is an act rooted in God’s free movement. When we participate in small acts of creativity, we join in essence that first act of God’s freedom, making something when nothing had to be made. Creativity in our world is a direct rebellion against gross consumerism and materialism. We were not made to be consumers, chained in obsequious vassalage to made-in-China plastic or made-in-Hollywood film or made-on-Wall Street stocks. Submitting ourselves to these new overlords is quite a burden, though, for in that act we passively annihilate our rightful inheritance of creation: creativity.

New Orleans, for all her faults, is a cradle for creativity. Like an obese message board male critiquing the beauty of a fashion model’s elbows, you may look from the outside and decry all her blemishes, but the beauty of this city shines even in the darkness of flood and pandemic. There is no American city as creative as New Orleans.


Mardi Gras outfit made from blue tarp, 2006

When the news leaked in November that Mardi Gras parades would be canceled this year, many were very angry. Others put on the selfish mask of Melpomene and sulked, many posting on their social media messages reading, “Check on our friends who normally participate in Mardi Gras. We are not ok.” Both the enraged and the victims miss sight on an important truth: Mardi Gras is a religious holiday rooted in the act of creativity. It is not a holiday to celebrate drunkenness and licentiousness. It also does not require parades. In fact, since Comus first reigned over us 164 years ago, the parades have been canceled 18 times, more than 10% of modern Mardi Gras! Mardi Gras is far more than parades.

Sadness does not conquer the Christian heart, nor the heart of New Orleans. Our losses give rise to our greatest achievements, our greatest creations. In an act of creatio ex necessitudo, the idea of house floats arose. And what an idea it has been.

Never before has the city been so alive in joy and creativity. Mother and I began by car touring these stationary parades last week, singing hymns of praise all the way, relishing in this beauty, this art. It actually took a little convincing Mother to go on this tour with me. She is a traditional New Orleanian and at first saw the outpouring of homemade decorations as gauche and for the impecunious.

I would not allow her pessimism to rule. “Mother, you well know that It was the Church that perfected human art, correcting the Roman inclination toward debauchery and never giving acceptance to contemporary tendencies of frivolity.”

Mother nodded. “Agesander, Athenodoros, and Polydorus are as detestable as Mark Rothko. TulaneLSU, you know how I cherish stained glass. My dream for you, after becoming a surgeon, was to be the next Abbot Suger. It was of you I hoped would again elevate stained glass to the place of the sculpture and the painting, for these are the three greatest forms of art.”

How should one respond to his Mother when he knows he has failed her greatest hopes? After silent reflection for several minutes in our sitting room, I responded, “Mother, please join me on my tour and I will take up my stained glass work in my crafting room.”

She smiled, grabbed her keys, and we began the tour.



As the days have passed, thousands of homes in our area have become scenes that combine these three of Mother’s favorite forms of art in playfulness and good cheer. Driving to see these float, therefore, is no longer necessary or even recommended. Instead, use the next couple of weeks to explore your neighborhood and others by walking through them. There has never been a better time to learn through footsteps the geography and architecture of the New Orleans area than right now.

Having reflected on all of what I saw, I can say I prefer this form of public Mardi Gras to the floats. I do not miss the faux caste system of the krewe system nor do I miss the obnoxious crowds nor the disgusting litter and wasteful throws, nearly entirely made in China of fossil fuels. What I miss most about the parades, though, are the marching bands and the smells. The house floats, even those with music did not reproduce those most sensual wonders of this season. I hope sincerely that house floats will further democratize Mardi Gras and find a way to incorporate marching bands. Should they do so, I see a new horizon for what we think of as Mardi Gras, just as the Protestant Americans revolutionized Mardi Gras nearly 200 years ago.

This weekend I walked over forty miles to bring some joy to our board to bring you. I fear that TulaneLSU’s Top 10 Mardi Gras house floats is already obsolete, so rapid has this contagious good spirit transmitted through our city’s delicious air. Some may be surprised that I did not include in my Top 10 many of the famous installations, professionally made and installed. I am sorry, but the greatest decorations for Christmas and for any religious holiday are born of one’s own hands, sweat, and creativity. Financial wealth gives you as much a ticket to heaven as it does a top 10 list.

As for us, I have already started an covert assault on Mother’s belief that we should only decorate with a tri-color flag and a wreath. While this year it is too late to begin, next year I hope to have an enormous display telling the story of the family of faith, from Abraham to Moses to David and the Prophets to Jesus and Paul and the Apostles to the great disciples like Augustine, Thomas, Calvin, and Barth. I may need some of your help in creating this, my great coup against agnosticism.