Self Discovery

OK, OK so I have not posted in a while. . .sorry, I was involuntarily sent to New Orleans for a period of self discovery (aka Leadership Training). These are the things I discovered during my "leadership" training:
1. I am bossy.
2. People perceive me as bossy.
3. Duh!
So they then set about spending two weeks trying to get me to what? Not be bossy. One of the last days we had a "simulation". . .the feedback I got from that? I was not bossy enough during the exercise. Lessons learned? Be myself and be bossy but first pretend to hear what others are saying before I am bossy. Cost of Training, thousands, cost of little pieces of my soul? Priceless.
The other thing I learned is that the Fed's want to send everyone there for training to stimulate the economy.
Let me tell you a little about 2007 New Orleans. If you go there as a tourist and stay in the downtown area you think "WOW, New Orleans has really made a come back!" However, if you leave your little cocoon of the the 5 mile radius of the French Quarter/Convention Center area you realize just how devastated the Big Easy really is. You pass street after street of houses with the "X" spray painted by FEMA on them, the whole city is covered. These X show who serched the house, the date and if they found any bodies. Who needs Cemetary tours when you have this kind of horror staring you in the face? You still see "trailer cities" set up in parking lots where shopping centers used to be. They are orderly and almost seem like an overflow from some popular RV park, yet they even have armed guards to make sure you belong there. It seemed everyday I was there a shooting was reported. We saw military police anytime we left the "cocoon". I went to Wal-mart on a couple of occasions and what I sensed and felt was a quiet desperation. I feel for the tenacity of the people of New Orleans but I am not sure that it is possible to deal with mass post traumatic stress syndrome in those sorts of numbers. There is a feeling that hangs in the air. . .heavy; like the humidity . . . like a forced smile when you are having your photo taken and you have to smile. I don't think many of the residents are ready to "say cheese" yet. And who can blame them?