"A traveler's thoughts in the night Wander in a thousand miles of dreams." ~ Wang Wei
Last week, I was fortunate to travel, a thousand miles of dreams, to America’s Capital of Washington D.C.; a remarkable place with so much to see and do. The weather was beautiful—-sunny, but not too hot, with a cool breeze and a rush of excitement.
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HISTORY...
"A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” ~ Robert Heinlein
White marble monuments and politics, a sense of history and grandeur, Washington D.C. was once considered sacred land by the now extinct Piscataway Native Americans.
With the lobbying of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, President George Washington chose the exact spot along the Potomac River for the national capital. Construction began on the White House in 1792 and on the Capitol the following year, the same year that architect Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, with his French passion for creating an ordered landscape, designed the diamond-shaped city with four equally-developed quadrants.
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AN ABSTRACTION...
"Washington isn’t a city, it’s an abstraction." ~ Dylan Thomas
"Washington is one of those cities that mixes the Southern efficiency with Northern charm.” ~John F. Kennedy
It is a pleasure to stroll along the grassy D.C. Mall, between 3rd and 14th streets, marveling at the world-famous museums and monuments. A beautiful city. The most political of all cities. So much to see...
At the heart of the Mall, the Washington Monument, the sleek white obelisk, built in 1884. Proudly rising over 168 m (550 ft) above the city, it was the tallest structure in the world until the Eiffel Tower was completed five years later...
The 2000-foot Reflecting Pool, inspired by Versailles and Taj Mahal, the spot in the Constitution Gardens where thousands stood to hear Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have A Dream" speech…
Or the solemn Lincoln Memorial; in sign language Lincoln’s left hand spells the letter “L.” His right, the letter "A…"
And my favorite, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, featured books at each end of the wall to help find an inscription. The polished black stone holds the names of over 58,000 Americans. The memorial is such a sharp visual and emotional contrast to all of Washington’s white monuments.
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HUMAN PASSION...
"The waves of human passion rise and fall; worldly things are as transitory as passing clouds." ~Cao Ba-Quat
Like passing clouds, every adventure ends. But, of course, the memory lingers. And these words keep the images alive in my heart... and now yours.
