Life Is Short. Get to New Orleans

Spend 15 minutes in New Orleans and I guarantee you’ll appreciate being alive.  It may be quicker.  The only reason I can think of if it takes longer is that you are already a corpse.  Then, it definitely will take longer, if it happens at all.

Even skeletons dance in New Orleans.  They kick of Mardi Gras Day in Tremé.  Vita brevis, as it says carved in the wall over the altar in a church in Tremé.  La vie est courte, is what it says in St. Louis Cathedral.

New Orleans Italians always say, “Gusto!”  “Gusto!”  Most New Orleanians are full of gusto.  We know we are lucky to live here and we savor every moment.

What would New Orleans be without New Orleanians?  It would be a museum.  It would be a ghost town.  There wouldn’t be anything to do.

Spend 15 minutes in Baton Rouge or Shreveport and I guarantee you’ll be missing New Orleans.  It may not even take that long.  New Orleans is a part of Louisiana but New Orleans is a world of its own.  You’ll still be in America but it won’t feel like it until you pass a Popeye’s Fried Chicken outlet.  Most people in my neighborhood prefer McHardy’s.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a sno-ball stand in our neighborhood, yet.  Chicken and a sno-ball are almost as good as crawfish and a Dixie in New Orleans.

Spend enough time in New Orleans and you’ll be changed for the better.  It’s a B-12 infusion.

Rainbows end in New Orleans.  After that, its a jumble of colors and flavors and sound that will set your spirit free.  Ours is a city full of both sinners and saints.  Life is short.  Make the most of it.  That’s the New Orleans way.

When you are ready to visit this wonderful city we call home you know where you should stay.  Life is short.  Get your good self down to New Orleans.  The city is calling you.

You are on the right website.  La Belle Esplanade.  La Belle Esplanade.com.  We look forward to sharing our part of New Orleans with you.  Good memories are made on our street.

If you want to read more essays like this one, we are selling a manuscript collection of previously unpublished essays.  There are singed by author (me) and include handwritten annotations to explain some of the things I’m talking about for people who don’t live in New Orleans.  Since every edition is completely unique, these are sure to be collector items to help you get into a New Orleans state of mind whether you live here, you’ve visited before, or you’ve never been here.  Treat yourself at EsplanadeDreams.com.