I went to New Orleans.  I found a town so achingly beautiful I could have softly wept over it.  I came back reaffirmed about the restaurant business.  I saw a town of culture, old and venerable.  I saw a town of incredible priceless cultural value, and a town encroached upon by irrelevance and economically lean times.  I saw it in full swing, Bourbon Street on a  Friday night, Frenchman Street, I observed it in a hotel at the edge of the Quarter.   I came back to DC, a town without as much real culture, corporate implant, and working where I do I saw why I was doing what I was doing.  I saw the innate high-called James Agee-observed Catholic dignity of serving other people, as is done so well and graciously there.  Music, soulfulness, real people, real life, friendliness, the complete opposite of corporate legalese culture.

It doesn't surprise me one would have epiphany moments there, like we imagine a young Lincoln seeing people bought and sold the time he went there.