New Orleans: Katrina

I don't think that after Katrina I had ever been able to think about New Orleans without thinking about  Katrina.  You know those psychological tests where you have to yell out the first word that you associate with something?  New Orleans: Katrina.  After I became aware of this I felt guilty for it.   I wanted to believe that it was because I didn't know enough about the city firsthand to think anything else.  And I blame the media.  It wasn't enough that my dad went to school there, and my mother grew up there, and that they fell in love and married there....it was still New Orleans: Katrina.

But after spending the past month here and talking to a lot of people, Katrina was just yesterday and seems to be on the forefront of people's minds, even for those who have their entire lives and history connected to this place.  So I guess the region and country and maybe the world is going through a kind of collective PTSD.