THORNBERRIES AND GREERS IN D.C.--Part III

Tuesday, May 13, 2008—Sunny Day for Geeky Weeky

To our relief, when we arose for the next day's experiences, it was to find that this day was as bright and sunny as the previous day wasn’t. Jennifer and I still didn’t want to get up as early as we ended up doing, but we knew the complimentary breakfast would close up if we didn’t get downstairs right away. Then I put on my trusty sailboat shirt — the one I had worn the first time we came to D.C. — and out the door we went!

A Late Start for the Travelin’ "Liberries"

BLE-E-ECH!!

Jennifer released a copious jet of vomit in a cone four inches wide at her lips, thirty-seven inches long and covering a five-foot wide wedge at the far end. It saturated the floor of the Metro station. For whatever reason, Jennifer’s trips on the train this year were harder on her guts. Lady J couldn’t sway. She and I managed to get to our destination, but by that time, she was harboring gastrointestinal gunge. Remember, our guts were nine years older, too.

Anyway, the setting was absolutely beautiful and we grabbed pictures galore. Our main goal was to tour the Library of Congress. It ended up being a stunning structure, an architectural marvel whether or not one actually went through the governmental rigamarole to get clearance to see the stacks section.

Not a fashion paragon, Thomas sits in D.C. in 1999 (top) and 2008 (below); wearing the same damn sailboat shirt.

After calling and coordinating lunch times with the Greers, Jennifer and I walked all around the outside, taking pictures of the elaborate fountain in front. But pictures just can't do it justice. Experience it for yourself here:



Then we went inside, where we beheld arches, buttresses, mosaics and symbolism. Like a woman, it had great curves at the top and bottom. But the symbolism was nearly as powerful as the architecture; almost every single part of the Library contained some symbolic content.

On the various ceiling panels, the names of authors famous throughout history were engraved. Everything from Roman poet Catullus to Spanish author Cervantes and the creator of Frankenstein, Mary Shelly. At the rear of the building rested a huge mosaic of the Roman goddess Minerva. Beneath her, was the Latin inscription: Nil invita Minerva, quae monumentum aere perennius exegit. With my new understanding of the language, I looked at it smugly and realized I still had absolutely no idea what the words meant. So I immortalized them in this record, my intent to translate them when I have more knowledge and resources. Stay tuned!

The beautiful internal architecture in the Library of Congress

We spent a brief amount of time looking at the two bibles they have on exhibit. One is a Gutenberg bible, one of only four complete vellum copies known to exist. The other was a handwritten one. Both were equally artistic and breathtaking…and also written in incomprehensible Latin of the Gothic hand. I managed to pick out “pater meus” in the handwritten version, which means “my father.” Slim pickings, huh? :-/

Jennifer and I moved on to tour a small museum section of the Library where they wouldn’t let us use our camera. Mostly, it involved large tracts of original writings from the country’s founding forefathers, including arguments from the Federalist papers. It was quite neat to see not only the original handwriting of such great historic figures, but also the philosophical works that inspired them to make their revolutionary decisions.

The pinnacle of this area was a replica of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. Many of the volumes were originals, purchased and carried by his own hand. Some of these originals had Latin titles, such as Lex Parliamentaria, and Del Commercia de Romani. There was even a book or two by Cicero, which is particularly relevant to me, since one of my goals is to ultimately translate from Latin a book by that great Roman orator. To know Thomas Jefferson was also a student of Cicero makes him something of a kindred spirit across the centuries.

Others of Jefferson’s books were copies from the same time periods that he was known to have owned. Unfortunately, the originals were subsequently destroyed in a fire after he donated them for the government’s use. And then there were titles he owned but that have not yet been possible to find alternative copies as replacements. They just exist as empty boxes on the shelf with titles on them.

All good things must come to an end (id est, Jennifer was tired of watching me read obscure titles in Jefferson’s library). We exited the Library of Congress and set a course for meeting up with the Greers.

On the way, we swung by the Capitol Building, which we had seen nine years ago.

(Above) Jennifer before the Capitol, 1999. (Below) The same, 2008. But the gawdawful sunglasses are gone!

As we were trying to get from the backside to the front, we bumped into a Capitol Policeman and asked for directions through the courtyard area. We received a terse, “You can’t do it. You’ll have to walk all the way around the building.” [Sigh]. So we walked al-l-l-l-l the way around a block or so and finally got to see the seat of our nation’s congressional decisions from the front side.

How things had changed.

On our first trip, we went all the way up to the front entrance and snapped pictures of the Mall area from the vantage point of Capitol Hill. Now, all of the stairwells were barricaded and loud, red signs basically said, “Back off!!” More Capitol Police patrolled the area, and one of them virtually clubbed me away from the locked gates when I approached to take a picture of the “no trespassing” signs. He asked me, “Sir, is there some particular reason why you need a picture of that?” My blood froze.

I had this momentary image of myself showing up in controversial photos years in the future, another hapless victim caught in unforeseen fallout from the Patriot Act.

How to answer? Would he really understand or care, if I launched into an explanation of how the Travelin’ Thornberries immortalize their experiences so they can share them with others? Could he imagine the eight to ten hours required just to write it all down, then the dozen or so hours required to convert them into magazine layout forms? Would he even allow me to finish talking about y’all out there reading this, our loyal fan base? Should I tell him no country was ever brought to its knees by a guy in a sailboat shirt?

Probably not. Our law enforcement professionals in this country have a difficult job to do on a slim budget and often without much gratitude from those they protect. Ultimately, their job is to be suspicious. So rather than get fancy, I simply told him we’d been there nearly a decade ago and hadn’t found it so…ahem…diligently overseen. He informed me, “9-11 happened…we got caught with our pants down and I don’t wanna see that happen again.” That also explained the bag checks we’d faced at all the museums, which had not been a feature in the Old America, pre-September 11, 2001. I made it a point to express to him our gratitude and appreciation for the efforts of himself and his fellow peace enforcers around the country.

Jennifer and I moved onward to the Air and Space Museum, as the time had come to rendezvous with the Greers for lunch.


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