More DC Stuff...

I went to the Vietnam Memorial wall today, and was quite moved by what I saw there.

I saw a black granite wound in the heart of a place that represents the United States, a wound that still has not healed. I saw a woman looking at panel 61E, at a particular name there, and crying softly as tourists flowed around her.

I saw a man in his sixties. He stood frozen in front of panel 41W, staring as if transfixed. His face was an expressionless mask as he reached out very, very slowly with one hand: and when his fingertips at last found the name of some lost buddy he had been seeking, his face broke, and he quietly wept. His wife stood behind him, with her hand on his shoulder, doing her best to be attentive to him.

I saw a black granite wound, but also a place where the mourning wounded can bring their grief; a place that can bring a measure of healing to those who make a pilgrimage to it.

God Bless Maya Lin.

Road Trip: Dateline: Washington DC

I've arrived in Washington DC, after a 4 day drive across the United States.

I'm staying with a friend in suburban Maryland, and today I took the Metro (the DC Subway) into Washington DC.

The weather was off-and-on-rain, but I managed to avoid most of the heavier downpours and take in the National Mall.

The Capitol building itself is quite impressive and imposing, almost to the point of silliness. Seeing the thing close up and "in-person" for the first time made quite an impression on me - the building is just absolutely colossal, with marble columns that are probably a good fraction of 100 feet tall. I got some sense of the power exercised in that place, and it was both impressive a a little disquieting.

There is a Catholic church near the Metro Center called St. Patricks. I stopped in to pray for a few minutes, to thank God for a safe drive from California to DC. More soon.