mens sana in corpore sano

It’s just another day in paradise here in our nation’s fair capitol. The last few weeks have got me thinking. DC is a pretty transient city all things considered; people come and people go. Congress is elected and reelected, administrations are changed over, contracts begin and end, and the tides of people ebb and flow. Three good friends are leaving soon and I guess I had not been here long enough to experience this turnover of people here. I never truly expected to be in DC after school was finished, most likely because I never really had a plan for afterwards. I realize now how foolish that really was of me in the end. So now, as I plan to go back to school to further my education, I can take stock of what undergrad was and vow to be a better student this time around, at least I hope so.

So what happens after DC for everyone else? They go back home, back to their respective countries and states, back to their old friends and extended families. They move on to bigger and better positions elsewhere in the country. They are reassigned by the military or deployed to various theatres of operation. They might simply get tired of the pretentious attitude that pervades the city as well. If they are from the North, they may get tired of what they call “the South” and vice versa for all of us from the real South. There are multitudes of reasons and motivations for moving away from this place, but honestly, I have not reached my limits here yet. I have been playing a little game with myself lately when running. Instead of running a designed trail or route, I pick a building or monument and run to it. So one day, I might run to the Lincoln memorial, while the next my goal is to go throw a rock in the Potomac River and then run back home up the hills through Georgetown. There are embassy parties and special interests events for anything you could possibly be interested in. There are all of the Smithsonian museums that not only are great institutions, they are also free. DC is a great city, with a lot to offer. It might not be the final destination in life, but it sure does have a lot of road signs to point the way.

So now, as I sit here after 18 months of life in this part of the world, I feel a certain sense of satisfaction over what I have lost and gained. I still marvel at the Capitol building every time I walk by it. The hair on the back of my neck still stands straight up when I hear the National Anthem. I have lost my faith in the public education system in America. We are falling behind more and more, and we will reap the whirlwind someday on this. People think it is crazy that we are fighting over oil right now? Wait 10 more years when we are fighting over fresh water. You can live without oil; water? Not so much. Americans are among the most self-centered and pompous jerks in the world, but our country is still the greatest in the world.

I turned in my official petition to Naval Freemason Lodge #4. I have my official investigation this Thursday and I would be remiss to say that I am not a little nervous. I don’t know why, but I think it’s natural to feel that way about something that means so much. Many of the other brothers are fantastic people, and I should be humbly proud to be counted among their ranks. I find myself getting peeved a little when people claim that they know all about the brotherhood and then proceed to tell me about what “exactly” I am doing and whom I will be associating with. Whatever. Read a fucking book that wasn’t written by an idiot with an agenda or a sensationalist, and then make up your own ideas about something before you lecture me and claim to be my own personal soothsayer.

Sorry for that folks, every once in a while the anger bubbles to the surface in unexpected places. Speaking about unexpected places, I was out running a while ago and became terribly lost in the woods somewhere in Maryland. I was about to turn around and look for something familiar when I came into a clearing with a 30 foot tall statue of Lady Justice. Needless to say, I stopped dead in my tracks and asked one of my favorite rhetorical questions that you would say in the NATO phonetic alphabet as “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”…I kept running and passed a dozen more statues before coming out of the woods into this old crazy looking complex with stone arches, beautiful old buildings crumbling from disuse, and unkempt gardens surrounding the area. I did some research and came to find out that it used to be an old seminary school which is now undergoing a restoration effort. It even has a large pagoda building on a lake further down the trail I was on! So that got me thinking. I wondered what other kinds of crazy stuff you can find in the areas around DC? What kinds of crazy tunnels and underground stuff can you find? I heard a story recently that they were doing some renovations in the basement of the Capitol building and saw some stone mortar that was newer than the original brick. They knocked down the wall to find a small room with nothing inside except a large stuffed horse. Like someone’s horse had died, and he had the thing stuffed and walled up in the basement room underneath the United States Capitol building!!! Someone, somewhere was rolling in their grave laughing. It inspired me to try and learn more of these crazy stories. So for now, I will try and make a foray into the world of urban adventuring. Updates to come. The whole point of this spiel is simple; there is nothing more glorious than insatiable human curiosity. If something captures your imagination, explore it!

As always,
Live Triumphantly.