America

This week I am on vacation in Washington DC. So far I’ve been to the Lincoln Memorial, and Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Hirshorn Art Museum. I’ve toured the town and seen the Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery, the White House, the Capitol, and the Washington Monument. I’ve been out to Mount Vernon. Of course there are plans to see and do more. And in the evenings I’ve been watching the Olympics with all the flag raising ferver.I am feeling rather patriotic this week. I do not usually think about country and government much. Like many in the States I take all we have for granted. But walking passed the WWII Memorial or the Roosevelt Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial it’s impossible not to be moved. Great words carved in stone reminding me of all the privileges I enjoy and many the deep thinkers we’ve had in this country. I’ve driven by the FBI and Departments of Interior and State and all the other bureaus that keep our country working. It’s rather inspiring. It’s like lifting the hood of a car and seeing the inner workings of the motor. There are an impossible number of things that have to coordinate to make it all move.Being here in Washington I get to see all this and there is a feeling of pride and pomp. There is ceremony here. It is all so grand. The ideas we are founded on are engraved in marble here. We are still trying to work it all out and live up to the lofty highs. Yes there are trouble and arguments. But there is also a lot that works. It has been good to be reminded this week of how complicated a job it is to be America.