Orange light flickers through dense fog on an empty street. The moon hovers over like a watchful eye, giving subtle radiance to the dark brick roads and painting historic buildings in blue. Where the moon fails to illuminate, the firelight glows forth. There is a battle between the orange light of the flame and the cold light of the moon. The firelight dances to and fro, creating an orb around the street lamp. The moon attempts to wash away the warmth of the fire but fails. For the moon is too far away to be as relevant as the fire we have lit.
This battle between warmth and cold, light and shadows, history and progress is ever raging. Within these battles, there is a balance to be attained between the sides. Different parts of the world have varying levels of balance, yet balance all the same. Some places in the far reaches of the north are cold all year to the common man. Yet even in this extreme, there is balance, but just at different degrees. You have warmer weather in the summer relative to the cold of winter. There are also periods of twenty-four-hour sunlight, but that is also balanced with periods of ceaseless nightfall. We see this balance throughout nature, throughout the universe. It is a constant dance of celestial powers that are out of our ability to fathom.
History and progress is another dance of balance, and New Orleans is representative of this phenomenon. There are cities much older throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but to see the intensity of the battle between history and progress, we should look no further to one that is young. For the attainment of balance has not yet been reached like those towns and cities in more ancient regions. A city that has history and is pulled by progress shows the spectacle without the mirage of time.
From earlier, the moonlight and streetlights are one dimension of the battle, but that battle was one that was fought at the beginning of the city’s life. Fire versus shadows, warm versus cold. In the modern era, these concepts still hold true, but as the world changes much faster than before, the new frontline is history and future. Coming from a very modern city, like Calgary in Canada, and revisiting New Orleans embodies a juxtaposition that is hard to describe in words. Calgary feels new, clean, glassy, and artificial. The only beauty to be found in this material metropolis is in the mountains close by. They rise up from the flowing plains and tower over the city with a condemning stare. To build such a place next to the celestial Rockies is an insult to nature. The mountains were formed over eons, majestic and mighty, and here is a city of glass towers that was built from a meagre town to a modern city over one-hundred years. Mother Nature laughs at such a place. Man cannot attain the beauty that time can create, but we were much better at it before.
Which of these modern monoliths will remain in a thousand years? Will any of the condo towers be awed over? No, they will not. This city is false. It is a lie. For something so enthralled with progress will not withstand the test of time. It will fade like a star that burns out — only the star has already burned out, the light you are seeing is from a star long dead. Calgary is a city that has burned out. With the ignition of the oil that it produces, it destroyed itself. The city will never be anything remarkable. None will remember it in the distant future. Travelers visit Calgary as a waypoint in pursuit of the beauty of the mountains, but they never willingly stay here for enjoyment or admiration.
Cities and structures that last through time are what we should strive for. It teaches those to come to remember the capabilities of the forerunners — to not think of themselves as overly intelligent, or as gods. The pyramids still mystify us today, as well as many other ancient structures and cultures. We have a reverence for the past because it was so impressive. Will what we have done in our modern world seem impressive? Will decaying condo towers in cities devoid of nature inspire and teach the future generations? What lasts in this world? Not knowledge, but wisdom. Wisdom is something that time can only bring, but knowledge can be sourced quite easily. Understanding what to do with that knowledge, or how to use it, is what we lack today.
New Orleans has a wisdom and reverence that comes with age. Its history holds back the wave of progress. It is our grandfather who tells us, “back in my day, we didn’t have X,” and we marvel at the ingenuity of the past as we sit in our modern conveniences. It is humbling to see the foundation of what we are today. That foundation is vital. More vital than the speed of progress. For a city that has an age beyond all others is a wise place. Progress is fettered, as it should be. Respect is given for the past.
As humanity moves forward, I fear we will continue to grow a hubris for our own achievements and will become corrupted by our species-wide ego. We already have. If we do not look at our past to find the wisdom left behind, then we will fail as a species. We will be the cause of our own extinction. Our ancestors were much wiser than we, but less knowledgable. The beauty of the ancient world should show us that truth. Even a young city, like New Orleans, embodies the battle between history and progress, and the reverence for tradition makes it a wiser place.
