A Day in D.C.

While the tri-state area was trudging through three feet of impassible snow, I was meandering down sunny avenues. I took a brief peek at the Museum of Natural History, during which I heard an adorable conversation between--I assumed--two brothers:

Six year old: [Omnipotent, taunting tone] You know, dinosaurs might not be real
Four year old: [Offended and obstinate] Yes they are.
Six year old: [Counterpoint] They're not alive.
Four year old: [Playing the trump card] They were!

How beautiful to see a hot, political debate between socially conservative and socially liberal Americans summed up so well by young minds.

While I was more than moved by this display of knowledge and conviction, and though the Museum of Natural History is a great museum, it's really not my cup of tea. I like zoos. I like it when the animals are still alive. So I moved on to the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden.


Once again I had a lesson in perspective, this time from the "professionals"; artists have been studying perspective for hundreds of years, so we might defer to them more often for a helping eye. The image below is of one side of a pyramid. The geometric simplicity is beautiful, but the way the light hits each piece in a repeating pattern is better. When I first saw the piece it was all in dark grey. Moving around it, however, I encountered the intersection that visually split the piece into dark on the left and bright on the right. Moving further, I walked out of view of the dark side and stared only at bright white bricks catching the sun. Just a few steps changes everything.

Inside the gallery I skipped the early centuries--stopping to view the only da Vinci piece in America, which is double-sided no less--and moved to my favorite: the Impressionists. I think the reason I never truly fit in as a studio art major is because of my love affair with the Romantic period and my disdain for the disdain that was adopted after World War I. I lose interest with toilet bowls as art.

 But this? This is innovation and beauty. Nothing better.

I miss Asia a lot. I especially miss traveling. But there are redeeming qualities to spending quality time in quality US cities: quality. This day was fine, in the refined and exquisite sense of the word. Topping it all off was a glowing city under a really blue sky.