It is an emotional time, so I think I understand why you would post this to me. There is a time and a place to argue with you the meaning of history and what constitutes a historical record, but I won't argue that with you academically at this time.
This Square is one of the centers of identity of this City. It is an icon of the best of New Orleans in so many ways. The Square is patterned on the Place des Voges in Paris. It is a place where I have walked with my sister and father in the beautiful sunlight and sometimes got caught in the pouring rain. I have received the Holy Eucharist and worshipped the Real Presence of Christ in that Cathedral on that Square.
I have had luxurious days where my sister and brother-in-law watched our kids so my husband and I could go down there and have coffee and beignets and some of the sweetest time together. So in part my love of the Square is personal, so personal it hurts.
Beyond myself its continued existence tells me that some day others will be there again. It tells me the city will live. I celebrate this survival because it gives me a holy hope for the future.
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I have no intention of ever arguing with you. I believe that hope in buildings is wrong.
Yours is a lovely post, Siobhan. Anyone who has been devasted by fire, earthquake, etc., having survived is glad to have survived; but are always surprised by what made it through the catastrophe. And those things have often giving great introspective meaning to the survivors.