What did Piazza mean when he calls interplay "a matter of spiritual life and death?"?

Question

based on When The Levees Broke

Answer 1

Every place has its history.

But what is it about New Orleans that makes it more than just the sum of the events that have happened there?

What is it about the spirit of the people who live there that could produce a music, a cuisine, an architecture, a total environment, the mere mention of which can bring a smile to the face of someone who has never even set foot there?