Walking the mall

Hello,

Stephen, Sarah, and I had lunch together. Their offices are within walking distance of each other. Smashed pea soup sounds abused, but it was tasty. They chose pizza.
One change since 1997, my last trip to DC was the WWII memorial. It was attractively done, simple but majestic. My thoughts went rather serious after that. Most of the memorials in this area have to do with war. Even Washington and Lincoln are related to wars. An hour passed as various ideas came and went. Why do we pay so much attention and tribute to an exercise resulting in so many deaths on both sides? Why don’t we spend more effort on things that advance civilization? Even if it is for peace it still seems that the method applied is if you do not agree with me I will kill you. How does this help anyone? Is war necessary just to keep the population under control? What are better alternatives? What are good ways to solve problems and why don’t we spend more time, energy, and money looking into those ways? No good answers came to mind just more questions.

It was good to spend a little time in the Smithsonian before I headed back to Stephen’s office where I would catch a ride home with him. City blocks must be longer here than in Chariton. It finally became clear that I would have to run some to make it on time. He had also made a plan to pick Sarah up on the street. There would be no real chance of parking so it was all scheduled to the minute. I made it with sweat streaming down my body. I don’t run much any more, no buses to chase in Chariton.

Lexi was at daycare and we picked her up on the way home. She seemed to know who I was, but took just a little time to reconnect. That is the story of my life reconnecting with granddaughters.

Paula