Okay, so let’s stop to consider something.  By giving us this URL, the Times Picayune is supposedly providing really important information.  But the URL is long and set in small type that is hard to read.  Why not convert the lengthy URL to to a TinyURL (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/a7z9t) and use larger type?  Answer: because the Times Picayune just wants to appear to be providing useful information. Making it simpler for people to actually use would require a minimal understanding of the Internet which of course they don’t have and don’t really see a need for.  Note that the online version of this story at the TP’s NOLA.com site doesn’t list the URL and doesn’t even have a hyperlink.   If I actually expected the local paper to give me important information in an easily digestible form I’d be upset.  Fortunately, I have low expectations.

Today was the first day that our law firm’s New Orleans office was open.  At lunch we talked about hurricanes.  Every conversation in New Orleans eventually revolves around some Katrina-related issue.  Several people can be huddled together at a restaurant table when a cellphone will ring. "Hmmm, I can’t tell who this is," says the person staring at the tiny screen.  "But I better take the call because it may be my insurance adjuster.  I’ve been trying to reach him for weeks."  You don’t want to miss your appointment with the insurance adjuster, that’s for sure.

My insurance adjuster is coming this Friday.  Most of the roof work has been done already, but I have some pictures to show him in case he needs verification of my damage.  I wonder if I should create a nice Powerpoint presentation too?  I want to make a nice impression, you know.

Last week the FEMA representative came.  I wasn’t able to meet her but my friend Vincent was there to meet Chloe, who it turns out is a refugee from Nigeria.  I found this out when I called her to give her my insurance information.  Chloe said that a bad day in her home was finding out that the village well had run dry.  A really bad day would be when neighboring warlords would attack the village and force everyone to flee.  Needless to say, there is nothing like FEMA in Nigeria.  And there is no ‘invasion insurance’ either.

I asked Chloe how she liked it in New Orleans and she said it was nicer than where she was from, but it was still depressing to see so much devastation.  But, she said, the work is interesting and rewarding. Plus I’m sure it’s a comfort to know that her FEMA village is well protected.

Obviously, a home is not ‘an assumption.’  It’s a place where you relax in a familiar chair.  It’s a place with treasured pictures and carefully placed mementos.  It’s a place where lines are drawn on a doorway to mark the height of children at various ages, the low lines uneven because small ones refuse to stand still.  Those markings have now been replaced by the dirty but steady lines created by flood waters. 

One can’t help but notice that hope is marked unevenly.

Some people who return from surveying their houses look like their spiritual back was
broken, snapped like a twig.  You hear people say that they just can’t take anymore.  They say this as they pack their remaining belongings on their
way out of town. Some people leave quietly, almost shell-shocked. Others are flat out pissed off.

Katrina has magnified everything, especially our emotions.  This can be bad or good, depending on the emotion.  For example, any sign of optimism invokes cherished pride, much like the finger painting of a six year old child.  A simple thing like the return of mail delivery (even if it’s unpredictable and sporadic) becomes a reason to celebrate.

Yes, there has been devastation and misery, despair and ruin.  But there has also been spirited laughter.  It’s not easy to drag a large refrigerator out into the street, especially when it reeks of the worst assemblage of vile stench ever created on this planet since grotesque organisms first bubbled up from the primordial soup.   And yet, after this unpleasant labor, many people take the time to inscribe their fridge with off-beat observations.  A friend of mine told me about driving into a subdivision on the Northshore and finding a house surrounded by criss-crossed pine trees, shattered pots and plant remnants.  The homeowner had spray painted a large plywood sheet with orange lettering and laid it in front of one of the toppled trees.  The sign read: "Garden of the Month."

One reason that people are so eager to eat out is they want to get out and socialize with their neighbors while pumping money into the local economy.  Another reason is people are tired of eating MRE’s.  I haven’t eaten any yet, but I’ve got some in my cabinet that I got from some friends.  It’s really interesting to hear people talk about the MREs.  Everyone has their favorite MRE (the spaghetti & meatballs is quite popular) and almost everyone I’ve talked to is surprised at how good they taste.  The meals come with a heating pack that you just add water to and put under the meal.  You have to love the instruction about placing the heat pack under a ‘rock or something.’

If you want to keep up with the latest restaurant openings be sure to check out this website by noted local food critic Tom Fitzmorris.  And if you have any Beef Stew MREs that you don’t want send them along to me.

There is no longer any fiction in New Orleans; there is only truth. And the truth is different for everyone, and it is the same. Everyone who lived in this city faces the truth that the city has been crippled. It was put in a strange-dimensional washing machine for 12 hours when Katrina hit. Followed then by a chaotic rinse cycle of rumors and half-baked notions (people shooting at rescue workers, people eating their young to survive). Now we are at the end of the spin cycle. Life is becoming familiar again. At least for some of us, those who can return to their homes and live within the part of the city that is still able to sustain communal life.

I went jogging this morning in Audubon Park for the first time since the Sunday before Katrina hit. The jogging path is much different now. Tree limbs are everywhere. And the trees look like Godzilla came through and smashed the tops off. No, the jog through Audubon Park is not quite the same. No more dappled sunlight.

If the sunlight represents the truth of this city’s state of being then it is fitting that the sunlight be intense and unfiltered. When I finished jogging my friend Vincent asked me how the jog was. I told him it was sad. He then asked what I meant by that. I thought about it and replied that perhaps ’sad’ was the wrong word.

He asked what the ‘right’ word was. I thought some more and realized that there was no ‘right word.’ The best I could come up with was an image. The city now is like one of those friendly three-legged dogs you see in an unfamiliar street. It’s not sad exactly because the dog is happy and coping and you know that it is making its way the best that it can. But, it’s, well… you know: not cheerful, either.

I plan to write more about New Orleans in the next days. I have the material written out, but I need to figure out what I really want to say. There is a lot to say about this city and the people who are here now. Mostly, it’s good. People are eager to rebuild and to make the city vibrant. But not everyone who wants to be here can be. Many people have lost their homes, their jobs, or their will to return.

New Orleans will never be the same. And yet, at the same time, it will always be the same. Is that a contradiction? Probably, but then so is this city. If you lived here and you understood the city then you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t lived here and want to understand then come see what’s going on. It’s pretty amazing, but unfortunately I don’t even have an image to describe it. All I can say is that it’s worth being close to.

New Orleans is coming back to life. Have you ever witnessed the rebirth of a city? Creation of any kind is very hard to explain, especially when it happens to an entire community. So I won’t try. But if you are interested you should come here and see what’s going on. If you stand perfectly still and close your eyes you can feel the magic flowing in and saturating everything from the deepest soil to the tallest limbs.

The festivities kick off at 9:30.  Chris is going to have a killer 6 piece band that promises to rock the house.  Admission is free, and there will be lots of cool prizes and giveaways, including some of his new CDs.  His old stuff is available at Apple’s iTunes Music Store at this link (requires that you have iTunes installed on your computer) if you want to check out what his stuff sounds like.