AziMuth
I’m not infatuated with our nation’s capitol. The Smithsonian, for all its well intentioned curators and important displays, reeks of the spoils of an empire. And then the buildings of the various departments of Federal bureaucracy: endless, blocks and blocks of the USDA fuling my resentment that my four month old has genetically engineered food waiting in the formula…But I did manage in my walkabouts earlier this week, to find some moments of interest and irony.
Just a stones throw from my hotel room, but on the delivery side, not the main entrance, and a block from the US Treasury, was an encampment of homeless men tucked under a railroad bridge. They were orderly, tidy, and to these eyes looked ore like a flash back to the encampments of soldiers which were common in this city during the Civil War.
The DC outdoor fish markets along the canal, where the city folk revel in blue crab, catfish and a variety of seafood, by far the most authentic thing I came upon. Crabs by the bushel, live or steamed, and everyone sampling the days catch with smiles.
Not far from the construction site for the new Arena Stage I shopped in a CVS that seemed to be located in two FIMA trailers.
Then there was the pow wow winding up on the capitol mall commemorating a native rights advocacy walk across the country. A fine rendition of a song titled “Long Blessed Wind” by a performer whose name I did not catch, just his spirit.
All taken together the unconscious responded with a dream where briefly from this vantage I could see across the continent to the Black Hills, and with that a perspective of how lame and arrogant Rushmore appears.
Fourfold Journey
Fire on the mountain...then thunder
Lifestream Digest for February 12th