history of catahoula school

THE CATAHOULA LAKE SCHOOL opened at its present site on September 19, 1936. Hugh Daspit, as principal, along with five other teachers taught grades one through seven. The six room structure was of cement blocks but without modern conveniences.

contain

THE SKULL contains the brain, but it doesn’t contain the mind. We walk around thinking our minds are in our heads, but the mind is only an inner space of the body metaphorically. Eyeballs aren’t peepholes brains peek through. Movies aren’t projected in some cinema between our ears. It’s pitch black inside there every second of every day. Even in full sun, our brains are always dark. Our heads are light-tight, even when our eyes are open.

the golden age of catahoula, part 2

the suchness of humans

I FOUND HIM near the nurse’s station in his wheelchair, receiving a cup of pills in his hands. His right leg, badly mangled in the accident, had been screwed and pinned back together and wrapped up in a soft cast. He couldn’t bend it at the knee, so when I wheeled him around and down the hallway to his room in the locked unit, I was mindful of the large sweep his outstretched right leg made as we rounded the corners.

brainglow

BRAINGLOW is the visual adornment of a cartoon brain — usually represented as a disembodied organ — with an outward-radiating illumination-of-sorts. Brainglow doesn’t exist in nature, of course. Brains don’t literally glow blue-green. But you’d never know it from the pictures of brains you’re likely to encounter walking through a bookstore or surfing the internet these days. You see brainglow everywhere — dust jackets, glossy conference brochures, websites promising heightened brain power.

mr. blank

I’M SO PROUD of my tea assistant, Mr. Blank. He’s been a patient of mine for almost three years, arriving at our rehabilitation center in the summer of 2012. He stayed with us for four months before returning to his home state on the east coast, but ended up in jail soon after his discharge for assaulting his ex-wife. Knowing his history, and with sincere interest in his welfare, the authorities agreed to transfer him back to our center where he could receive appropriate treatment for his aggression. He was very fortunate. I’ve no doubt there are many men like him, with similar histories, imprisoned for similar offenses all over this country. In his first twenty-five years of life he’s endured more than most of us ever will — all manner of abuse, traumatic brain injury, incarceration — so ending up where he did after being arrested was a rare stroke of good fortune for him. He’s been my tea assistant for seven months.

melba

Melba Bourque Thibodeaux

Undated

THESE OLD PHOTOGRAPHS of Catahoula have led me down many a rabbit hole, none moreso than this pair of undated images — further proof that photographs are ghosts, and that as long as images of you survive, you never really die.