from D.C.

The town of controversy. Even though right now my hometown is embroiled in controversy (look to other blogs for that one: Ocean has become so sweetly benign, concerned more with distant places and current eating trends (yawn!) than with the truly more serious issues of life, death and free speech), D.C. is the place where I imagine everyone to be either an elephant or a donkey. At least in the clothes they wear and the words they utter. It is simpler that way, even though this type of division substantially ignores real people with credible ideas.

To me, the visitor, Washington is a place of urban balance. It feels like a city and, to an extent, it looks like a sizable city…

…So that this morning, I am sitting by the floor-to-ceiling windows of this warehouse-like interior, reading my law text and I see myself reflected in the vase on the coffee table. A cityscape.




Outside, the wind is unpleasantly strong. And cold. We give up on a hike down to Georgetown or the Mall. We pace the neighborhood and watch robins shiver.




Tomorrow, I return home. For an insane amount of work. But next week-end, I am taking a solo break from it all, returning to a place first visited when I was so very very young. It helps me to return. A look back is comforting.