More Wow

Acouple more days in and still pretty darned awed by this beautiful city and its uniqueness in so many ways. I did have to giggle the other day when the mayor of Washington, DC was arrested for protesting over the way the federal budget cuts were going to affect this city. Where else would the mayor of a city be arrested for such a thing? They have a very unusual status here as DC is not actually a state and the city is mainly funded by the feds it would seem. Gives them some pretty big advantages such as the federal government paying billions for the metro system but it also gives the city government less power as well. There's always more to any situation than meets the eye isn't there?
We went on a brief tour of the Capitol building the other day and I had my eyes opened in ways I had not expected. It is, of course massive and beautiful but they have this little movie at the beginning of the tour which gives you some background about the building and the form of government they have here. I was reminded that this form of democracy is indeed an experiment and how amazing it is that they have come this far given the independent, individualistic and diverse nature of the people who make up this country. That they manage to get anything done is a bit of a miracle and so one has to admit that even though the experiment has many flaws, the founding fathers and those who have made a great impact ever since were pretty brilliant. It also reminded me that I don't really know what's going on at the best of times so my opinions and judgments don't really have much value.
We also had a tour of The House of the Temple which is the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry's headquarters which figured pretty bit in Dan Brown's book. The same architect who designed the National Archives and other federal buildings designed this little gem and it is indeed a wonder to behold. It's always good to get more information about organizations that seem quite secretive as well and I really appreciated what I learned and observed. I had a business partner many years ago who was heavily involved with The Shriners which is another branch of Freemasonry so I knew some about it, mostly that they had to do lots of memorizing and that they really supported each other in succeeding. They are very much about being in service in the bigger picture as well and are big on being actively involved rather than just thinking about stuff. I like that. Almost made me want to join which of course I could not anyway because I am a woman. Not that I would join anyway, not my path but it is interesting how much segregation still remains in terms of gender.
We also watched a beautiful 3D IMAX film at the Museum of Natural History yesterday on Arabia. Learned lots there too and once again was reminded how much of the world still does that thing where women are treated differently in ways that are not necessarily honoring of them, at least so it seems. This has been a pretty common theme of observation of late. I have no idea what it means, I'm just curious about it all. It's fun being in this place of curiosity as I observe things I have been seeing all my life. Makes it all kind of fresh and new.