The Bio & Socio Diversity of Fred's Lounge

Christy and I headed up to Fred's last Saturday morning - to dance to the world-class French music of Jason Frey on the accordion, along with amazing fiddler, Joel Savoy, and the singing encyclopedia of Cajun-French tunes, Ray Thibodeaux, who also was on drum.  We danced - AND we certainly enjoyed the unique and diverse "cultural assumptions, goals, values and behaviors" represented by Fred's Lounge's patrons.

We had so much fun dancing, participating in and soaking in the joie de vivre!  Although we do not see coming to Fred's every Saturday morning as an integral part of our activities, we talked about how much this particular visit was important to us - how we needed to visit Fred's on occasion to remind us of the dynamic nature of the culture that brought us to SWLA.
  

There were more than a dozen folks there we knew and that are important figures in our socio-culture here.
We talked about how happy we are that places like Fred's have been preserved, and, how we hope it will continue after those that have played important roles in making it happen are gone. You cannot find places like Fred's in Lafayette, or out at the Mall.

According to Wikipedia:  Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Greater biodiversity implies greater health.

And, according to The International Journal of Social Economics, "the loss of bio-diversity has received increasing attention as one of the most serious environmental threats we face. Yet not only biodiversity is being lost at staggering rates, socio-diversity is being lost as well. Socio-diversity is defined as the various social and economic arrangements by which people organize their societies, particularly the underlying assumptions, goals, values and social behaviors guiding these arrangements.


Socio-diversity is a measure of the health of social systems and our communities. Greater socio-diversity implies greater health.

I highly value bio- and socio-diversity - and I believe Fred's Lounge in Mamou, Louisiana is a measure of cultural health.  What a boring, watered-down, weak, listless and barren world we are headed for if we let places like Fred's Lounge disappear.  We should encourage others to experience places like Fred's.