Street Lamps Are Part of the Journey

Street lamps.  They tell you a lot about a place.  They are a representation of a city’s culture, how they see themselves and how they see their future.  These lamps are in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  If you’re new to my blog, you’ll find these and many other pics of NOLA on my website in my gallery of inspiring places.  You’ll also find photographs of Texas, Washington State, California, Arizona and Hawaii.  What can I say – I like to travel.

I’ve written before about New Orleans.  My wife, Gayle, and I visited there this past summer.  Our kids were in camp so we drove down to spend a week there.  Our original plan was to volunteer for a few days cleaning up the oil spill.  After trying for weeks before the trip to get through, we finally realized there was more red tape than what we could peel off.  We were actually told, “we’ll call you if we need you.”   Undeterred, we still headed to New Orleans but took the time exploring the city and experiencing the culture as much as possible.  We never did make it down to the oil spill.

The French Quarter is truly amazing.  The architecture takes you back 200 years.  The narrow streets remind me of most European cities.  There is music on every street corner.  Literally, a 5-piece Dixie Jazz band showed up every night around 5 PM to  play on the street corner below our hotel.  Everywhere we turned, museums, art galleries, antique shops, boutique clothing stores, amazing restaurants and bars tempted us.  Yes, lots and lots of bars.

My blog has been titled All About The Journey because I think too often we are so focused on a destination that we don’t enjoy how we got there.  Life is all about experiences.  Good and bad.  In fact, the bad experiences teach us the most lessons.  And, those experiences give us the ability to appreciate the destination and not take it for granted.  A marathon runner appreciates completing a marathon because of the hard work and training the she put in to it, not because she finished the race.

I think back on my time in the Air Force.  My goal was to go to college.  Next thing I knew, I was in Germany.  I put all of my focus on taking classes and studying and when I was done with my tour, I had a bachelor’s degree in economics.  But when I look back on those years, I realize I got more out of traveling around Europe, the camaraderie with my fellow airmen, the ridiculous things we used to do at work to keep from getting bored and the ridiculous things we used to do after work because we just felt like it.  I think most people who went to college will agree; the experience of college was as much or more of a reward than the diploma.

I think there are 3 kinds of people in this world.  Those that focus on the journey; those that focus on the destination; and those with no focus at all.  By only focusing on the destination, we know that we’re missing many of the experiences that give life so much power.  Someone once said to me, “When you die, nobody talks about how big their desk was at the office.”  (I actually knew someone who measured his desk and complained because someone else lower on the totem pole had a slightly larger desk).  And those with no focus at all, well, they seem to be people who drift, and drift, and drift.  I know.  I’ve been all three of these people at various points in my life.

So what, you ask, does any of this have to do with street lamps?  Great question.  These street lamps in New Orleans are full of the same culture that emanates throughout the entire city.  The city has made a conscious choice to preserve a culture of music, food, history and nightlife and exemplifies this throughout everything, right down to the detail of the street lamps.  These aren’t facades like what you’ll see in Las Vegas.  This is the real deal.  Now, how many people walk right under them everyday and don’t even notice them?  How many people are so focused on their destination, or have no focus at all, and they don’t notice the detail of the street lamp?  I’m not saying everyone has to be “in to” street lamps. I’m just saying slow down and take in all the moment has to bring you.

Gayle and I still talk about our trip to New Orleans.  But it was the night we stayed at a smoky run down casino in Shreveport; stopping for lunch in Baton Rouge; touring a swamp outside of town, the museums, the food, the people, the music and, yes, the bars.  Lots and lots of bars.  I noticed these street lamps toward the end of the week and took this picture.  They, as much as anything else, represent New Orleans, to me.  And taking time to reflect on them is all part of the journey.