PROMPTINGS: Through the Storm

I grew up in New Orleans about two blocks from Lake Pontchartain – a lake now made infamous because of a broken levee at the 17^th Street Canal between Jefferson and Orleans Parishes. Having weathered through a number of hurricanes and “near misses” I like many native New Orleanians knew that Hurricane Katrina would do a last minute side step and head another direction. That’s the way it always happened. New Orleans, we believed, was somehow “enchanted.”

Our naïve “Pollyannaish-ness” was violently dispelled last week as Hurricane Katrina ploughed her way through the Gulf Coast leaving in her wake not just the destruction of materiel and property, but leaving in her wake also a throng of suffering and despairing humanity.

We’ve seen this sort of thing before. The Tsunami which left hundreds of thousands homeless and dead reminded us of the awful force of unbridled nature. But that was thousands of miles away in a completely different hemisphere. Perhaps naively we thought that something on the scale of the tsunami could never happen here in the U.S. Or at least, if it did, we would quickly recover, being the great nation we are, and get on with our lives.

That isn’t going to happen. At least not quickly. New Orleans will never be able to return to the city it was – the city, someone once pegged, “that care forgot.” New Orleans has been known as something of a raucous party town. One could go down to Bourbon Street at any time, day or night, and find a place on a barstool, listen to live jazz music, and be around others who had left their own cares behind. I wonder now how the soul of that city has changed. As it is rebuilt, how will it adapt the demeanor of what the Roman Stoics referred to as gravitas.

There are some things I would never change about my home city. It’s friendliness. It’s carefree and joyful spirit. I would never change the way neighbors gather together at a local po-boy or beauty parlor and get caught up on what’s going on in each others lives – and in the lives of their children who now live far away. New Orleans is a town that loves a good conversation.

But, there are some things I desperately pray will change in New Orleans. I pray that it as it rebuilds there develops a greater sense of community among all of its diverse constituencies – from the large, aristocratic homes of Audubon Place to the blue collar “gumbo ya ya” of the 9^th ward; from the “nouveau riche” of the Lake Front to the residents of a housing project named simply “Desire.” New Orleans has a long and rich history as a melting pot.

I pray also that as it recovers and rebuilds it moves past the “party on Fat Tuesday” and “repent on Ash Wednesday” spirit, taking instead in its place the developed spirit of purposefulness as it deeply loves, cares for, and nurtures one another as a community.

With a renewed spirit of disciplined and responsible leadership, New Orleans, like many cities in Europe and Japan after World War 2, can be rebuilt as a model community. It can become the "Seattle of the South" enjoying high literacy rates, education, and productivity. This will require the efforts of many talented and visionary people from every level of the public and private sectors, joined together in rolling up their sleeves, forgetting economic and "social" differences and moving ahead toward a compelling vision and purpose. It is in the spirit-led building of community toward an ultimately meaningful purpose where we discover the deepest and truest and most lasting joy. It’s around the deeply committed people of God on a mission that we experience truly the party that never ends.