Grokking the Mall
One of my friend Vivian’s favorite words was ‘grok’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok). She didn’t use it often, but she spoke of it highly. She explained it’s origins to me and its meaning. When it came up again she might explain it (… again) or she’d ask if I knew what it meant to which I’d reply “Of course I do — you’ve explained it to me before!” In this latter case she’d give me a look of consideration before moving on. 
Anyways, I grokked something Sunday and thought of Vivian — it had nothing to do with her other than I grokked. I had walked from Foggy Bottom to the Lincoln Memorial, then through the Vietnam War Memorial, which I have never seen so spare of people or of remembrances — there was only one little display in fact, and I photographed it.
The Mall was as quiet as Christmas morning. I stopped at the Washington Monument to appreciate the flags at half staff and an older couple who were flying kites. Then I walked up the center of the Mall to the reflection pool beneath the Capital, but instead of heading straight to the upper plaza for one of the great views in Washington, I went to the Grant Memorial for a close look.
As many times as I had been to the Mall, I’d never taken the modest detour around the pool to examine Grant’s Memorial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant_Memorial). I circled the statue of Grant; it’s dark — he looks tired and well worn, but resolute. Grant’s likeness reminded me of Clint Eastwood in “Unforgiven” (I’m serious — thats what I thought!) — a scene where Clint is riding out of town on a stormy night, having killed most of town’s men in an unbalanced gun battle at the bar just moments before, and now holding the remnant in the shadows through force of his presence and their memory.
If you asked me the delimiters of the Mall before this weekend I would have said the Capital Building marked the east — I wasn’t even conscious of the Grant Memorial. Now Grant and the Capital are together on the east, and of course the Lincoln Memorial marks the west — it’s roof is barely visable from ground level at Grant’s statue, but it’s integral to the east end nonetheless; I don’t know how the Mall unfolded, but there is a grand design to it and it’s length is meant to be walked. That Ulysses S Grant stands post in front of the Capital building makes perfect sense, as does (now) the White House’s northern view of foreign patriots of the American Revolution.
For the past two years I’ve been drawn to the Mall over and over. There is clearly something about it that resonates with me. I’m grokking it Vivian. Thanks!