DC

I recently returned from a trip to DC to see my friend Nirvi and I must say I really enjoyed our Nation's Capital!  I've never been there if you can believe it. I'm not sure there are many Americans who made it past eighth grade who haven't been there, but alas, I didn't have the right teacher in my eighth grade year at Galvin Junior high school and as such, I didn't get to go (I did put up with French for two years so I could go to Quebec, but I digress). And since I was never a Boy Scout, I never had the opportunity through that lovely organization either.

Poor me.

Better at age 35 than never, I always say! It was so much fun seeing Nirvi and wandering up and down the mall. We went to the American History Museum, which displayed Michelle Obama's gown from Election night (as well as a bunch of other foofoo-y dresses from past first ladies), Julia Child's kitchen, Kermit the frog, and an entire room of pop-up books. I was in heaven, really. As I entered the cafeteria with Nirvi, a friend of Nirvi's, and a friend and colleague, Amanda who had just arrived in town in order to start her internship at The Washington Post, we saw a line-up of old lunch pails on display, including one with the Night Rider, "You gotta respect a museum that includes the Hoff somewhere in it" noted Amanda.

Indeed.  American Museums, and Germans, love David Hasselhoff.

One of my favorite monuments, I think, was the Lincoln Memorial. I just loved how massive it was, and how Lincoln just towers over you and stares down at you. On one of the interior walls of the monument (but you probably know this already because you've made it through eighth grade and probably had the right teacher and got to go to DC when you were 12. Either that or you were a Boy Scout at one time) is the Gettysburg Address.

If you made it to fourth grade, you probably needed to memorize the Gettysburg Address. This I do remember. What I found fascinating is the fact that now I actually understand what the words, gracefully chiseled into that grande wall, mean. As a kid, it's just a bunch of words that mean nothing to you. In fact, considering all those prose we needed to memorize were rarely actually understood by it's reciters, I'm amazed we could ever remember it at all (ah, where the fear of Ms. McLaughlin will get you).

It was beautiful and moving, that speech.

For a photographer, I sure am bad at aiming these photos. It took us many tries to get one without Abe's head cut off!

The other thing I found moving was walking through the World War II Memorial and seeing all the older adults walking through with their canes or being wheeled through in their chairs, and wearing their "WWII Veteran" caps. I was particularly struck by an elderly woman who was sporting one of these hats. I wondered what the elderly woman I saw did during the war. I wondered in what way these people contributed, and I felt proud for them.

The other thing I wondered is if they are just posers who dodged the draft and bought the hat at the gift shop. I prefer to think not though.

Back to Patriotism. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall? It leaves you speechless. It is a beautiful structure to begin with, with reflection like nothing I've ever seen; it's like you can look through it and see your reflection all at once. And then when you step back and you see the names?  All. Those. Names. So many of them. When you stop and actually register that each one was a person? It's unreal.

I immediately thought of this painting when we arrived at the wall.

I did not anticipate the emotional effect that place would have on me. The Wall, the statue near the wall, the Vets wearing their hats (earned or purchased). It was a very interesting experience.  And nice for Nirvi and I to take a break from talking on and on about our lives and how we wish they were this way or that way, and stopping to really appreciate how very lucky we were to be born where we were born.