weekend

We missed out on the really nice fall colors when the weather was still nice, but this weekend Kirsten and I did manage to sneak in a short walk in the woods of Rock Creek Park before the truly freezing temperatures arrived (there were actual snowflakes in the air today, although none of them survived the trip to the ground). Rock Creek remains one of my favorite things about the city - there's something soul-cleansing about being able to travel less than a mile from our house and end up on a trail in the forest without visible signs of being in the heart of the city. It's a shame we haven't taken advantage of the park's picnic areas, which include fire pits - a barbecue must be on the agenda for the spring.

We had grand ideas about hitting up some culture this weekend (it's been a while since I just spent a day wandering the museums) but instead we defaulted to crass commercialism when we heard National Geographic was holding a warehouse sale. Basically, cheap books piled up by the pallet load. Not a good idea to put me in the middle of a book sale for science, history and nature books but I managed to have enough self-discipline to keep the tab relatively low (at $10 a book - the big ones - not too bad).

It was a National Geographic-themed day, as our next stop was the NG museum downtown. Te Papa (New Zealand's national museum, and a frequent stop for my Wellington wanderings, as well as the venue for one of my many temp jobs down there) was holding a traveling exhibition on whales in conjunction with NatGeo. In keeping with NZ official policy, all the exhibits had Maori translations - a nice way to send my mind traveling back to the islands.

We also had big plans to hit up a few galleries participating in FotoWeek, although those were sacrificed to time issues. Maybe before the week is out.

dancing in the streets

Kirsten and I watched the election results at a friend's house, with about 20 people, some of whom had already left by the time the West Coast polls closed and the Networks called the race for Obama. We stayed to watch John McCain's speech, which meant we missed the last Metro train home. Walking among horns blaring, we caught a bus where the mood of the driver and passengers can only be described as jubilant. There were several impromptu street parties in D.C. that night, including a large gathering of people outside the White House. We missed those, but no matter where you were around midnight after the election you couldn't miss the horns honking in celebration and the people on the sidewalks chanting Obama.

The result excited me as well, although not without trepidation. I don't think there's much the government can do to turn around the economy, although I imagine there are many things they could do that would make it worse. I don't yet believe that a huge majority in Congress will actually translate into major policy changes for the good of the country instead of individual grabs for more power and money. And I don't know if Obama can hang on to the excitement that clearly existed for his candidacy.

But for me the biggest promise of Obama was that he appears to want to know. He wants to examine all facets of a policy decision, to see if it could really work. He wants to hear dissenting views. He wants to get the details right.

This could be an illusion. The shine could tarnish, and we could find out once again the politicians tend to be more interested in their own electoral interests than the country's. We could find out the challenges of the moment, which will almost certainly call for sacrifice and tough decisions politically, are too much.

But I hope the feeling that had people celebrating in the streets with total strangers Tuesday night and Wednesday morning carries over, at least a little bit, for the next few years.