New Orleans is full of electric energy, and if you’re aware of it, once you catch it, you can’t let go. The depths of exploration in this city are vast, intense, haunting. And New Orleans haunts me, a little every day, lulling and luring me in with something that sometimes I can’t quite figure out, but it is enduring. My third visit has proven that. Nothing ever goes perfectly here, (of course nothing goes perfectly anywhere) but this fact in New Orleans is in your face; every visit here has demonstrated the human condition to me in such a raw and intense way. And each time, I’ve stepped away with a new outlook, gaining just one (or more) insights that add richness and depth (and sometimes pain) to my life. But of course they say: “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” — and I would add to that — but it helps to have 9 lives in New Orleans.