Jan 07 2009
Time Travel -or- Washington, DC
View from where MLK delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech
The Reflecting Pool was frozen over last week when I visited Washington DC, my first time back since moving away three years ago. The trees lining the center aisle of the mall were stripped of their leaves. The tourists, spouting cloudy breath in all languages, were heavily bundled against the cold. None of this was new, though: when I lived there the Washington Monument was my point of reference while walking through the city, and I had many times stood at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, trying to comprehend it all.
It’s hard to wrap your head around all the history that is behind the building of these monuments and all the history that took place around them. I stood on the tile carved to inform visitors that it was the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood to deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. How difficult it was that bitter afternoon to stand there being bustled about by fellow tourists and imagine a steamy August day in DC, 1963.
Pictures from the March on Washington reveal masses of people crowding up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, stretching along the Reflecting Pool, and winding around the full, leafy trees. It felt less impressive, less important today, standing there in my winter coat with people posing and snapping pictures all around me – without one of the world’s greatest orators speaking while one of the world’s other greatest looks over his shoulder.
But this is a part of what traveling is, isn’t it? Imagining a time and place unfamiliar to you and trying to recreate the feel of it, the emotions that you would have felt? Try to imagine standing there bunched next to thousands of others eagerly waiting to hear King’s now-famous speech. You remember, if just for a minute, why in a few weeks we will celebrate the man’s birthday and why you traveled hundreds of miles to be there.
Read more: History, Travel, Washington DCLlalan specializes in all things Ohio, but has funny stories from all over the US and Canada, plus a few snort-inducing ones from Thailand. And not only does she read books from around the world, she also samples beers in as many languages as possible. Favorite style: the multi-national American Double IPA.
