We're entertaining some out of town familiy. They wanted to see DC, rain notwithstanding. We made our way along the National Mall.
The WWII Memorial. New and long overdue.
The Koren War Memorial.
Lincoln and memories of Dr. King and his Dream. Memories of students and their parents, protesting another illigeal war.
And then, there it is again. The black scar across the National Mall. The singularly most haunting, fitting, apt reminder of another time and another place and the same place. Mere steps from the Reflecting Pool and gazed on by Lincoln. The most visitied memorial in a city of memorials and monuments. Along the way I lost count of the people asking where it was and then setting off through the rain to experience it. I was deeply touched by a woman, my own age, who still had on an MIA bracelet with a Navy pilot's name on it. She asked me (excuse me, you were kind enough a few minutes ago to tell us how to get here, can you tell me) why she couldn't find his name on the Wall. "I've had this bracelet more years than I can remember." I didn't know why she couldn't find 'her guy' and told her that. She said she hopes we'll never have a time when, once again, strangers like her will feel a deep need to wear bracelets for men they've never known. I had a tear or three in my eyes by now. We both knew we'd be there again.
One doesn't 'see' the Wall. One doesn't 'visit' the Wall. One *feels* the Wall, just by descending into that black scar. And all the more fitting, just today. In the rain and gloom that is DC.