Elysian Fields Lost: The sea is reclaiming Louisiana's Cajun country

"Louisiana's coastal wetlands are eroding -- more than a football field of land is lost every hour. As the marsh erodes, homes, communities and the local Cajun culture are under threat."

-- From James Fletcher's The washing away of Cajun culture; BBC Magazine, August 27. 2015

Odd that I should have to learn about this from a British publication; I saw the headline out of the corner of my eye while I was at the Beeb reading about a dispute between Colombia and Venezuela. I thought, 'Don't look at it.' But I did.  
In 2005, at a time when I thought an illness was going to kill me, I wrote on this blog that Cajun country was my Elysian Fields and wished Pundita readers could join me in the bayou where we'd laugh and dance to Zydeco music and eat crawfish and not have a care in the world.

It was my way of saying goodbye.

I guess that's why I've never visited Louisiana; it is a place that exists in my imagination, perfect.

For that reason I don't like hearing anything about Cajun country, not since Hurricane Katrina, which took an awful toll on the bayous.

But the region didn't die, and neither did I.

Should I steel myself to read the rest of Fletcher's report?  Maybe soon but not now. Not now.

A shrimp boat heading out to fish on Bayou Lafourche

********