The holy-gee-whiz grand tour of everything in the world plus infinity took place today. We had a lot to do and so little time to do it in, with only one day left after today. So off we went, Ash with her purse, me with my moleskine (and the trusty pocket in the back with my passes, card, and license in it- it is seriously the equivalent of a towel).
We were stumbling on our sore nubs-for-feet and out the door by 10:00 this morning. We decided to go ahead and do the Air and Space Museum today since Ash wanted to go and I didn't think there was much I wanted to see. As soon as we got there (which took a bit, since we had to orient ourselves amongst a sea of tents, which were to find out later what they were for), we both dove for the piece of moon rock. Rarely are iconic pieces of history available for one's fingertips, but this was one exception. I guess they weren't worried about a piece of rock disintegrating into a thousand pieces, beyond repair or hope. Thank God the moon wasn't really made out of cheese, huh?
We immediately flipped a coin to decide whether to go up to the second floor, stay on the first floor, go left, or go right. We ended up going second floor right to see the World War II aviation exhibit. It was boring as hell for non-plane/flight enthusiasts such as ourselves, but with my job as a museum researcher, the medals and some of the history interested me. I also got to see some uniforms and was careful to observe how the uniforms were showcased, so I could bring back suggestions. We went across the hall, looked at an odd but short exhibit on amphibious planes, with at least one model of a ship.
Before we went to the museum, we saw signs advertising their Albert Einstein Planetarium. As it turns out, we were on the right part of the floor to go see the movie, but we only had 10 minutes before the next showing and a painfully slow moving line to wait in to get tickets. We got to buy our tickets in time, though. We were going to see a film on black holes narrated by Liam Neeson. It was a really cool film, though it didn't really tell me anything beyond the class I took in Descriptive (read: "Dumbass") Astronomy. The graphics were beautiful though, as we were taken through the process of being sucked into a black hole in IMAX type presentation. Nothing beats watching the picture and seeing the sun rise behind your head on the circular screen.
When we got out of there, we walked along the second floor and saw an exhibit on the planets, earth, and the moon. They also have some feeds showing the new Mars rover and some pictures of Mars (it's red, if you didn't know). We next saw the Lockheed Vega, Amelia Earhart's plane, which led to a rather humorous exchange at the time.
Ash: Isn't she the one that disappeared?
Me: Yeah.
Ash: And she wasn't flying this plane?
Me: Apparently not.
Ash: Well, no wonder she crashed!
Me: As good of an explanation as any, I guess.
We next went downstairs on the left side and got to see the Wright Brothers exhibit. It was very cool to see the very first plane, as well as watch the first flights on video. They also had interactive models of the frame plane and some of the inner workings of the engine so that people could play hands-on and see how it worked. Lastly, we went and saw the paraphernalia covering the trip to the moon. It was interesting, if a little old news for my tastes. We went to the gift shop (I got my grandmother a solar keychain), Ash took a picture of the Apollo reentry vessel/ship/what have you, and then we bolted out the door. We were already starving, but we decided that going to the gallery was a good idea, because there was a cafeteria there. We could do half of the museum and then go see the other half after we ate if we so chose.
This is when we found out what those tents had been for. At first I thought it was a world cultural fair/festival, because I saw the flag of Israel above one of the tents. As I started looking around, I realized that all of the tents had Israeli flags. There was a huge stage with a screen behind it at one end of the field, and people were sitting underneath all of the tents that I could see. Then someone hands Ash a pamphlet of the day's events and tells her to enjoy herself. They don't hand me anything (I think they knew I wasn't Jewish; then again, neither is Ash) – although I wanted to grab one of the Obama stickers that was in Hebrew, but I was afraid to ask after they didn't even offer me a pamphlet. As it turns out, it was a celebration of Israel's existence, which made me a bit nervous. I don't know that I agree with the case for Israel and I absolutely don't agree with the case for violence, so I was hoping that no one would stop me and try to talk to me about it. The people who were speaking in the tents and in front of the screen seemed angry. As we were leaving the field, a woman in front of an audience proclaimed that every Jew should buy property in Palestine, "invade Palestine" and "take back Israel."
We climbed the steps to the National Gallery, which felt like forever, and merrily went on our way to see statues. I saw pre-Renaissance art that was similar to what I'd seen for four consecutive weeks last summer, so I was a bit bored until we got to the modern pieces that were by people – and peoples – whom I really enjoy their art. I've always admired the paintings of the Flemish, Dutch, and Netherlandish because they seem so rich and vibrant, even if I've heard them described as "flamboyant" and "vulgar. Take a look Johannes Verspronck's "Andries Stilte as a Standard Bearer" or Sir Peter Paul Rubens "The Fall of Phaeton." We saw paintings by Fra
Lippo Lippi, Da Vinci, Monet, Cezanne, El Greco, De Goya, and Van Gogh (his self-portrait, no less).
We finally went to lunch, exhausted and barely able to move. We got really good food (gourmet pizza!), went to the gift shop, and bolted out the door to our next stop – the Archives.
Well, it really wasn't as dramatic as it sounds, especially since we had to wait for about an hour overall to go in and see our nation's founding documents. We waited about twenty minutes outside and about forty in a queue to get in to actually see the documents. Before we went in, I got a picture of a copy of the Magna Carta. (Some snot-nosed kid asked, "What's the Magna Carta?" When someone told her to read the history, she said, "How about I don't and you just tell me?" I just shook my head in disgust.)
If you've seen National Treasure, the room looks exactly like that (if the one in the movie isn't the same as the real one). The paintings around the documents were interesting, too, but no one really explained what any of it meant. However, one of the guards, who told us what we could and couldn't do in the room, said that they were most frequently asked about the man with the peg leg. The man he was talking about is in the painting on the right, and he was Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania. He lost his leg while trying to get away from a girl's bedroom that he shouldn't have been in. He had been trying to get in the carriage, but fell out and it ran over his leg. Needless to say, it was amputated.
When we finally got to see the documents, it was a bit exhilarating to be that close. I took pictures of it all, and tried to get close-ups of Ben Franklin's signature, as well as the different headings for the Articles. I made sure to get a picture of "We the People" on the constitution, while I hummed "The Preamble." The woman in front of me in line (who happened to be the mother of the Magna Carta brat) started nodding her head. "Yes. It's still the best way to learn it." I agreed. We went to the Archives gift shop, sat down for a minute, and the sallied forth to the Natural History museum, our last major stop of the day.
By this time, Ash has about had it with the walking and I'm wearing down as well. But this is the place I've been waiting to see all day, and I'm not going to quit just yet.
When first walking in to the Natural History Museum, a huge African (or maybe Indian?) elephant is before you, standing on top of a huge rock. It's a grand welcome if there ever was one. We first went to see the dinosaurs. There was a dino café (I don't know if that's what it's called), and got an okay-tasting eggplant sandwich with two drinks. Turns out it was like $16, which was by far the most I'd paid yet for a meal, and this was only a snack. After getting over my "pissed-off", we went ahead and finished touring the dinosaurs, seeing a T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Albertosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Duckbill, a Brachiosaurus, and quite a few others.
Then we went on to what ended up being an "animals of the world exhibit" that included animals from every inhabitable continent. It was like a huge taxidermy exhibit. In that respect, it was really creepy. But it was pretty cool to be that close to so many animals that I wouldn't have been able to be close to otherwise. I mean, a leopard in a tree? A giraffe drinking water? How awesome, eh? Even if they are stuffed.
Next we went upstairs to see the Hope Diamond and other cool gems (mostly from India). It was interesting how nearly all of the really large pretty diamonds came from India and were used for so-and-so's crown, or so-and-so's royal necklace, and none of them had a story of how they ended up in the United States on some rich person's ring. All of the gems were gorgeous, though. They had lava rock as well, which was neat, too.
I really wanted to see the Butterfly exhibit, but it was closed, and the Korean exhibit was closed for renovations. Thus they were a big suck. Still, we got to see a lot and learn a lot, so we were able to limp away feeling good about all we'd done. There were three or four gift shops, two or three special ones for the exhibits, and one general one downstairs. We left through the downstairs door and went out for dinner.
We decided to eat dinner at Jaleo, a tapas bar, which was apparently all uphill from where we were. It was really good authentic Spanish (not Mexican) food, and the Sangria was a-MAZ-ing.
Finally it was time to go back and rest. We only have one more day to go.
Note: I'm sorry about the dead-pan boring narrative I had going in those last three entries. It's hard going from morning to night walking, driving, reading, browsing, and writing (too many cognitive processes, not enough hours in the day). I promise that the narrative will pick up a little from this entry forward, and that the finale (to be revealed soon!) will not (read: hopefully will not) disappoint.
Enjoy!
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There are few things more American than war and chocolate, and I did both today. We set out early this morning, Jeremy again not in tow. We traveled first to that battlefield of great renown – Gettysburg.
We first went to Visitor's Center, but I had to go back to the car because of "no backpack" signs. I was annoyed because I had planned on walking around with it. No sooner had we walked in the front door than I saw four different people with backpacks and no one stopping them.
The visitor's center is apparently brand new or damn close. They had a "saloon" that was like a cafeteria, guided tours, a movie theater, a huge gift shop, and a free museum. We opted to just do the free museum at first, but I was not disappointed. When first walking towards the museum, two videos are playing on opposite sides of the entrance. The one of the left is a video of how a Civil War soldier would have loaded his gun. The one on the right is how a soldier would load a cannon. Before entering the main part of the museum, two cases side by side, show the classic blue and grey uniforms of the North and South. It's not so hard to imagine a time when the men who wore those uniforms would have rather destroyed each other and their ideals than stand shoulder to shoulder. Now they stand together, long without bodies to fill them.
The museum is laid out in chronological order. The first part gives the reasons and events leading up to the war. Then there is another part describing how the war had gone thus far. The next three parts after that were for each day of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). The final part was dedicated to the myriad events that happened after the war, including Lincoln's assassination, the ultimate failure that was Reconstruction, and Democrat politics up until Woodrow Wilson. Throughout the museum there were touch-screen computers that could illustrate parts of the battle. I looked up Confederacy regiments that were in Gettysburg fighting, and sure enough one lone Arkansas regiment was there, far away from home.
When we finished the museum, I went to the gift shop (the other two had already gone to the gift shop while I had been wandering through the museum). While I was in there, seeing things I wanted to buy and nothing that I really should, I heard a woman screeching at one of the workers. I looked over and heard her mention something about "Nehzi swastikas" (at least, that's how I would imitate her later – I don't think her accent was that bad). It turns out she was upset about – are you ready? – the story selling paraphernalia with Confederate flags. Did you catch that we're at a Civil War museum? Her argument was that you would never see Nazi flags in a World War II museum. All I can say to that is that she's never been to a good World War II museum. If you have a World War II museum that doesn't have a single swastika in it, then you've either got a museum on the eastern theater or one with any less than inconspicuous "All Hail America!" theme. She continued to complain to the woman, raising her voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Finally she asked for the manager. After squawking at her about the flag being on Confederate coasters and getting no satisfaction (I'm sure nothing less than pulling everything with a confederate flag on it from the shelves would have sufficed), she asked to speak to that person's boss.
Listen to me, people. I understand what the swastika has come to represent (it wasn't always that way). I understand that it became the symbol of one of the darkest hours humanity has ever faced. I realize that the Confederate battle flag has become the symbol of a lost people and a lost cause that was evil and oppressive. But just as not every man, woman, and child in the South was a slaveholder (West Virginia didn't secede from Virginia for no reason), not every man, woman, and child was a Nazi. The first and foremost reason that the Confederacy entered into the Civil War was not really just slavery, but for the overarching issue of states' rights. The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler provoked World War II not just because of its Aryan ideology, but because Germany was full of bitter hungry people who rewarded a man who gave them bread with their service and lives. Neither the aristocratic slave-holding South nor the insane racist NSDAP were indicative of the whole. Does that mean that things didn't go wrong? That the worst crimes in the history of humanity were not committed while the world stood by and watched? Absolutely not. But to raise hell over coasters is picking the wrong battle.
I almost went and bought the coasters, but, after much deliberation, I decided on a nice blue and gray keychain instead.
We went and ate in the Saloon for lunch. I had a chicken sandwich with some sort of olive spread on it. I thought it was pretty good for a visitor's center saloon (not that I have much of a basis for comparison). Afterward, we went straight to the car to begin the auto tour. Rachel had bought the tour CD, but my CD player had been acting up since we left Arkansas. It was content to leave us in silence as it had most of the trip, so we had to play the CD on my laptop and its pitiful speakers. We followed the auto tour routes, but we got lost with the CD. Ash got frustrated. I turned off the laptop, and we took pictures in silence so nobody would have a reason to blow up.
We got out in a little park area right after it started raining. We were only a few steps away from the Gettysburg cemetery, so we decided to go ahead and go. The field primarily for soldiers was adjacent to the larger city cemetery for Gettysburg. A good sized monument stands close to the entrance commemorating Lincoln's speech. Surprisingly, the monument is not on top of the place where he gave the speech. It is some 100 or so yards away, which is now where the Soldier's monument is.
We walked on the sidewalks, taking note of the hundreds and hundreds of graves. Few have flowers.
We trooped back to the car and headed to Hershey. We decided to go a different route than what I had written down in my handy-dandy Moleskine (everyone needs one – I'm serious), and I got a tad lost for the first time since we started the trip. In no time we were back on course. Within two hours we touched our feet on the parking lot in the mecca of chocoholics and the bane of dieters everywhere – Chocolate World.
I wasn't sure whether to regret coming or not when I walked up to the front door and saw
monstrosity upon monstrosity. There were happy chocolate bars smiling and hyper kids screaming. It was almost too much to handle. I'm not ready for kids, yet I had become a pro at ignoring them as if I was already a mother.
We first went to what looked to be a simple exhibit on how chocolate was made. In fact, it was something farm more horrible and sinister. It was a ride. We were herded into tea-cup like vehicles and set on a track with music, a narrator, singing cows, factory belts, more screaming children, and songs (sung by cows). It was spectacularly horrific, and I don't think I'll choose to see anything quite like it again. It was a Willy Wonka nightmare.
Escaping from the teacup was the best thing I did all day, and I immediately ran to the gift shop to make my escape. Still, there was little respite to be had there. Children were swarming the shops, apparently on some sort of eighth grade graduation trip. I bought stuff for my family and sat in the cafeteria, eating my questionable pepperoni pizza. I later had an authentic Hershey's chocolate milkshake that tasted like a cocoa powder slush and was strong enough to make me think twice about drinking it. A part of me was relieved when we finally went out to the car, but it made me have fun (somewhere deep dark inside where I never let anyone peek in lest they hang what they see over my head) that the other two enjoyed it so much.
Our drive back was relatively uneventful until we hit some sort of traffic cluster****, and I had to switch out driving with Rachel because I couldn't do it anymore. I really have no idea what time we got back since I was asleep in the backseat with one foot in the back window.
More coming soon!
Today didn't seem quite so long, but it was no less tiring.
I set my alarm for 7:30 this morning, but none of us got up until 9:00. By the time we all got around, it was already 11:30. I was mad about it, but we compromised and decided to go to the Smithsonian museums another day, and to go to the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building, and the Supreme Court today.
We set out on the long Metro ride (around 30 minutes to get to where we needed to be) and ended up near the Library of Congress at 12:45 or so. We (minus Jeremy, who was sick) went into the LoC. Immediately, Rachel and Ash starting taking pictures. I had been there not too awfully long ago, but it was much more technologically advanced this time. TV screens were everywhere, as well as touch-screen computers dotting the entire premises (it would show a picture of something in the room, and highlights of the room would have plus signs by them; pressing a plus sign revealed more details about that particular highlight) and even a cell phone number that could be dialed for floor-by-floor tours. We saw the tours up on the sign, and the next possible one was at 1:30, and the next was at 2:30. We decided to go eat nearby in the Madison Building, one of the three buildings of the Library of Congress. The main building that is commonly associated with the LoC is the Jefferson Building, and the third building is the Adams.
Off we went to the Madison building and up to the sixth floor, where the cafeteria was. We waited in line behind a huge group of kids, but after we sent Rachel ahead to see if we could go on in, we figured out that that the groups had to go through some sort of "cafeteria seminar" to even go in. The rest of us could go in head first.
The LoC Cafeteria was pretty large and pretty cheap. Mine was more expensive because I didn't see the "prices include employee discounts" sign, but it was still good. I read a brochure on 25 FAQs, and found out that we could see a typed copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in the copyright office on the fourth floor. We got all excited, and immediately put up our stuff (after a quick picture of the LoC trays) and went to the elevators. We went down to the fourth floor and looked around, but couldn't find anything. Then we went down to what we thought was the floor we came in on, but we were wrong again. We followed signs and - somehow- ended up underground in a walkway. We came out in the Jefferson Reading Room areas - which was a bit frightening, since the signs practically warned that they would shoot you if you went into the reading rooms without a registration card. We finally came out where the library was, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We looked around a bit, but went ahead to go grab seats for a tour.
While we were waiting on the tour guide, a man in front of us got up, tripped over the bench, and fell, hitting his head on the corner of the bench Rachel, Ash, and I were sitting on. He immediately started bleeding, and the woman (who I presume was his wife) started screaming, "Help! HELP!"
A guard came over and looked stunned. "Didhefaint? Didhefaint? Didhefaint? Hetrip? He trip? Hefell? Didhefall? Didhefaint?" All the poor woman could say was, "He tripped! He's bleeding!" A woman from another group came to the rescue and held a tissue over the bleeding gash on his forehead. Later on, I heard the woman say that he would have to have stitches about half the length of his eyebrow.
We decided to go ahead and look around on our own after that. We took pictures of all of the architecture in the main room, and I played with the interactive touch screen computer. The first exhibit we went to was Exploring the Early Americas. The pieces were amazing. There were pre-Columbian pieces galore (which touchscreen computer allowed you to turn, "unroll" (if they were bowls or cylinders), and "read" (the markings would have plus signs that revealed more information about that part of the piece when touched). The maps were cool as well.
The other exhibition was a two-in-one deal: Creating the United States and Thomas Jefferson's Library. As awesome as it was to see the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, I've got to say that seeing Jefferson's library was an amazing experience. To see what affected the beginnings of our country first hand is a powerful thing to behold.
When we came out of the exhibit, we snuck in behind another tour group about to see the Main Reading Room. We listened to the guide tell stories for a few minutes before he led us in. We went up into the mezzanine, which was separated from the actual reading room by plexiglass. The tour guide showed us the statues of philosophy and their corresponding figures (for example, Religion was parent to two statues of Moses and St. Paul). The ceiling, from the perspective of what I came to D.C. for, was one of the more interesting pieces in the room. But I'll write more on that later.
When we finally left, we went to the Capitol only to find out we had to have tickets, which usually go very fast. I was pretty upset since it was past 4:00 and we'd only done one thing. We walked to the bottom of Capitol Hill and happened upon the U.S. Botanical Gardens which, thank God, were free. There were literally hundreds of different species of flowers and trees. It was a beautiful example of the beauty that exists in the world just beyond our fingertips.
After the Gardens, we went back up the Hill to eat at Tortilla Coast, which the tour guide tells us that George W. Bush ate there before he was elected (it does so in a very "leave it at that" manner). It was all good, even though we ended up taking most of each of our plates back to the hotel room. Two metro rides and one metro-nap later, we went back to the hotel room and watched Children of Men and Adult Swim.
Reflections will be posted later, as there are many of them for this day. But tomorrow there will be even more: Off to Gettysburg and Hershey, PA!
Such a long long day.
We were slow to get around. I was still sore from the drive and my body was reluctant to respond. I totally missed breakfast in the hotel, and the half muffin that Jeremy and Rachel brought back for me had a hair in it. Blegh.
We asked for directions to the metro. The woman at the front desk was very hesitant to give them, insisting instead on driving us. After hemming and hawing, we finally got directions. When we followed them, we got lost. We ended up going back to the hotel and asking another guy for directions, but we could barely understand him. What we could make out matched what the other woman had said, so we tried the same way. We went over a ridge into a park which we had originally thought was a dead end. It turned out to be the right way.
We walked to the Metro station and bought our seven-day pass. Under my direction, we took the wrong metro train and had to get back on another with even more stops. Then Jeremy and Rachel got off at one stop to "use the bathroom." An hour later of Ash and I sitting in the metro waiting for them, we went up to the street and called, only to find out that Jeremy and Rachel had gone to the Air and Space museum since they couldn't find us.
We finally got ourselves together and went to the most anticipated of our stops in the Smithsonian "district" - the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The first thing that struck me was how open the museum was. One huge wall had only a verse (from Isiah, I think), which said, "You are my witnesses." They had multiple exhibits, and we had to take a ticket with a time to be able to go to the Permanent Exhibition. Our time was 3:30, so we decided to go to the kosher cafeteria to get lunch. When we got out, we had enough time to go to the 1936 Nazi Olympics exhibit.
For those who don't know much about it, it was the only Olympic contest held in Nazi Germany (yes, there was even one). They had pictures of different men and women who had won in the Olympics but were killed during the Holocaust. An American might be more familiar with it as the Olympics where Jesse Owens broke a running record, then came home and wasn't allowed to run in a race because he was black.
We went to the museum shop for a little bit and looked around before our 3:30 time. Then we were ushered into elevators. Before we got in, we were supposed to take a card with a person's name on it. I don't know if it was the same way with everyone's, but the person on Ash's and my cards all survived.
The elevator was cold gray metal and looked like the outside of a boxcar. When we got out, the first thing we saw was a video of the liberation of one of the camps and a large photo of charred black bodies. As we kept walking, there were concentration camp uniforms mounted on a rounded wall built especially for it. I looked over the railing and saw uniforms down below as well. It reminded me of a well of souls.
There were two videos to watch as we wound our way through the museum - one on the rise of Hitler, and the other on antisemitism. We saw a car used to haul things, including bodies, a boxcar used to carry men, women, and children to their deaths in extermination camps, and a model of the gas chambers and crematoriums. They had a hospital bed which was used in Action T4. They even had beds from Auschwitz, where men and women would have had to sleep six to a bed. Three boys from a middle school slapped their hands on it, and one proclaimed, "I could have slept on here!" People died on those beds, and all that boy could think was to make a loud challenge to anyone who once slept there.
They had mini-videos all around the museum. Some were on mobile death squads. Another video was on Nazi medical experiments. Others were about those who were persecuted, like the Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) and the Jews. They didn't have much on political prisoners, and even less on homosexuals, but they did identify major groups that were persecuted.
One wall showed Polish men who had been photographed minutes before they were shot. The Polish, as a nationality, got the brunt of Nazi wrath. Millions of Polish people died. In the pictures, almost all were exclusively priests and teachers. They all looked tired and uncertain.
The museum tried its best to evoke emotion, and it did from me. Seeing the shoes, which made of leather, were chosen to survive over things made of flesh. There was a wall with pictures of forearms with the Nazi serial number tattoo. There were also pictures of mounds of hair.
There was one hall that had pictures of Jewish men and women that had been collected over the years. The pictures extended several stories. All of these people were human, and they were all slaughtered.
The museum goes into the creation of the state of Israel, but doesn't go so far as to validate either side of the conflict. They had a video at the end that was long, but showed men and women who had been liberated and their stories. When we left, I felt heavy.
We next went and visited the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial (complete with fountains that weren't there the last time I came), the reflecting pool, Mr. Abe Lincoln, and the Vietnam War Memorial.
On Lincoln: I thought it was very interesting that the inscription above his head (which I have a picture of) refers to the memorial as a "temple." I'll share my thoughts on that later on.
We walked what seemed like over a mile to the nearest metro, and took it to Union Station where we ate in a restaurant called - get this - "America." I had a burger, which was pretty good. They had light-up outlines of Texas and Louisiana on the walls, which we thought was pretty funny (apparently that's where all American food comes from - in fact, most of the food on the menu was prefaced with "Na'wlins" or "Texas"). We finally left (we limped, really) and went back to the Metro station. We were almost accosted by a crazy person, and we were accosted by a drunk guy, so we couldn't get back to the hotel fast enough. When we came in around 11:45, we collapsed and fell asleep not long after our heads hit our pillows.
I'll post my observations later.
We are in Washington, D.C.
We stayed the night in Memphis last night and left this morning at 7:00 on the dot. It took us a little over 14 hours to get to our hotel, and we ordered pizza so we wouldn’t have to step outside the door again for another 12 hours.
On the way, we saw quite a few interesting and beautiful things. The mountains were the best part. We were able to see the Appalachian Mountains and bits of the Smoky Mountains. Most exciting was seeing the signs of all the Civil War battle names – Manassas, Wilderness, Shenandoah, Fredericksburg, and quite a few more.
To those of you who don’t know why we’ve come so far: It’s not exactly a vacation.
My best friend, Jeremy, his girlfriend, Rachel, and my other best friend, Ash, have come this far on a mission. We are looking for American identity.
We are looking in the places that seem obvious. The memorials, the museums, the monuments, the statues. We see these things as intrinsically tied to what we think it means to be an American. But at the same time, there are details in the places that seem irrelevant that are just as important to that definition. We will be coming home in a week, and we’ll have many stories to tell.
For instance: Something that I thought was particularly interesting was the number of roads in Virginia that were dedicated to people as “Memorial Highways” or “Memorial Bridges.” That, in addition to the number of Civil War battle sites, military institutes, and military museums (as well as this past weekend being Memorial Day) reminded me of how Americans identify with death on a daily basis. We are a nation of remembrance, and we are constantly reminding ourselves (out of guilt? debt?) that we are never to forget. Americans believe that they live, breathe, and die by certain ideals that they regard as closely intertwined with Americanism. But what are they, really and truly? What does it mean to live and die for a word like “freedom” or “America” and not really know what it means? What does it mean to be loyal to a vague blur of hand-me-down stories and distantly removed history lessons?
We are observers while we are here – intense yet biased, understanding yet separated. It will certainly be an adventure, and I hope you will stick around for the ride.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
