I am grateful every day that I get to have a job doing what I like to do. Music and the arts have always been much more important to me than making a buck, and lucky me, I created a gig for myself that allows us to pay our living expenses, compensate our staff and still allows us to be immersed in the creative world.

I’m thankful that what we do as a team at OffBeat is to have created a positive change in the music community, and the people who listen to, write about, play and do business with musicians. That’s the most gratifying part.

I suppose everyone wishes that they could leave a legacy of some kind. It’s human nature to yearn for something that will allow your fellow humans to remember you or your work; it’s the method in which we can feel immortality, in some way.

Musicians are very lucky in that their creative talent is evident and can be loved and appreciated for as long as humans have ears. Creative vision, much more so than any business, is something that is passed on through generations and generations. Business?…bah, humbug!

While John D. Rockefeller is well-known for his start-up of Standard Oil, it’s not his business that’s remembered so much as his creative vision of how oil energy could have a huge impact on the world.

Mozart, Beethoven, Balanchine, Baldwin, Poe, Renoir, Shakespeare, Angelou, Bernstein, Michelangelo, Hemingway…these are the people who have left us the greatest human legacy. Creativity is a divine gift, and while not everyone is blessed to possess such a gift, all of us have some capability of expressing ourselves through art in our daily lives.

I suppose the best legacy anyone could hope to create is one that persists and influences others in a positive way. I remembered this recently when I viewed Bayou Maharajah: The Tragic Genius of James Booker. Booker was, as they say, a hot mess, like many addicts. But he was quoted as saying that his gift came from God, and that it was something that no one could deny or question. He was gifted with the profound ability to move people through his music and his creative vision, despite his personal problems.

Art unfortunately has been so devalued in America. While I certainly agree that science, math and social sciences are crucial in education, music and art are as important. Anyone who cares about education in this city and country should also be pushing to re-establish music and art programming in our schools.

What current generations should do it to endeavor to create feeling, thinking humans who can develop their creative visions as a legacy for future generations on this planet. New Orleans—as the most deeply and musically profound place on the planet—has a unique opportunity to leave an indelible legacy both with her music and art. Let’s focus on that goal.