“Just Ok?” That time Richard Simmons invited me into his kitchen for a pep talk
And how I learned answering honestly is everything
“Do you like the baby Jesus?” Richard asked me.
“Uh.. sure…” I answered as hesitantly as I imagine you would have answered.
“I just love the baby Jesus,” said Mr. Simmons as we walked up and into his living room, revealing a staggering number of — you guessed it — baby Jesus ceramic statuettes and sculptures.
From all around the world.
As I native Californian I was thinking more of earthquakes — looking around at all these breakables — less of creepiness. Although in a Louisiana-Anne-Rice kinda way there definitely was some of that too.
“New Orleans,” he said when I asked the question I always ask when a person looks like they *might* be from somewhere else.
“Of course,” I answered approvingly.
It made so much sense.
The columns, the colors, the gaudiness. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t Tammy Faye gaudiness, but it also wasn’t the California-Spanish or modernist villa I’d expect somewhere above Sunset Blvd.
Which was where I’d found myself on that fateful spring day in 2013.
