What is a New Orleanian?
I’ve always been the type that would prefer an experience over a gift. My greatest birthday gift was having a bunch of people I love seek me out in New York and make it a cause for celebration. The unwrapping of the night was memorable. I thought about what Ernie was telling me last time I saw him in the Quarter – he was trying to put his finger on why we can’t live anywhere else but New Orleans – and today when I was walking around the park, I thought of how we are a very social lot, and we value experience over material gain – it’s that we are going to party while the hurricane is coming, dance to our grave, because we all have a deep abiding knowledge that life is fleeting and the here and now is all you have – so music + dancing + food + friends – ephemeral – fleeting – experiential – this is what we value above commerce and convention.