The Bucket Life – New Orleans

History is telling for most cities, but not every city tells a new story each decade. From its first known residents — Native Americans — to the French settlers; from Spanish rule to its sale to the United States; from coded cocktails and Cajun cuisine and Creole ancestry and Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans never stops reinventing itself.

But there is also tradition — tons of tradition. Sure, the flambeaux lights and king cakes of Mardi Gras come to mind when thinking of New Orleans’ character. The parades. The parties. The jazz processionals. But, there is so much more behind the bright colors. Meaning and messages that form tradition.

This city has also made a name for itself by fighting traditions. Women’s suffrage. Prohibition. Emancipation. The evolution of jazz. The people of New Orleans have never lost sight of their character, even when cultural norms were headed in a different direction.

Sometime around midnight, while most tourists are grabbing their last drink in the French Quarter, bakers arrive to the Decatur Street mainstay, Cafe du Monde, and begin folding beignet dough for the morning rush. This is life in the Big Easy, a city that care forgot. Days roll into nights, nights into days. There is no tyranny of the urgent, no need to push forward. There is just the requirement to be fully present — to employ every sense, taking in the sights, sounds, smells and stimuli of this great city.

New Orleans makes sophistication accessible. It’s a tight-knit community that ebbs and flows like the Mighty Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico around it. It’s a city that reminds us how important it is to have fun every day. Not just any fun, but rather the type of fun rooted in history and tradition. Let the good times roll, indeed. This is, “The Bucket Life.”