Columbia

When we passed by the Capitol building in D.C. recently we noticed and wondered about the statue on the top of the dome. The figure is a woman, resembling the Statue of Liberty, but wearing a helmet and carrying a sword. I thought, perhaps, the figure is of Columbia -- but then hesitated because she was not carrying a torch like the movie company icon. Then we began to wonder who Columbia is, really, and about statues of muscular women depicting America, in general. How is the figure on the Capitol dome related to the one in New York?

A little research reveals yet more Native American associations and evolution of myths symbolizing our country. Early on the image of choice to represent our young nation was a naked native american warrior princess astride a giant armadillo. This must have seemed a little wild as soon thereafter the image changed to a clothed princess sans critter. With European influence images of Greek goddesses synthed in, an interesting combination of Artemis, the goddess of wisdom, and Athena, the goddess of war (or of liberty). Adornments changed then from skin, feathers, bows and arrows to flowing robes, spears, swords, torches, and tomes.

So, to answer my own question, "Columbia" is a synthesis of all the above, and name is derived from that dubious explorer Christopher Columbus who "discovered" this "new" world.

BTW the statue on the Capitol dome is "The Lady of Freedom", kind of a sister image to Lady Liberty.

Gateway

We strolled from our hotel to the St. Louis Arch and the Thomas Jefferson Western Expansion Memorial. This monument is an amazing sight, almost unbelievable, like someone photo shopped an impossible image onto the sky in the background of St. Louis.

This is the historic point of departure for dreamers leaving for a new life in the open, untamed west. To me it couldn't be more intimidating or exciting than boarding a space ship to colonize a new planet. Then again the people loading their prairie schooners with enough goods to survive the trip and start a new life, along with their families, couldn't possibly have imagined the distance nor terrain and obstacles awaiting them. Even from the top of the arch the formidable Rocky Mountains are invisible, the distance between here and there unimaginable.


Yet still they left; still they came west.

At Ellis Island we learned how the politics of old Europe drove people away on a similar journey, a dream and prayer to be anywhere but where they were, oppressed in unimaginable ways. The seeds of modern distrust of government must have come over the ocean from peoples whose governments were murderous. What then drove people from the new America away into the west? Hope of riches? Dreams of having even more control over their own prospects? Restlessness? God?

Now, in a few days, as we continue westward, we will be home in a place forged by those who came dreaming before us. When we left, a rainbow filled the Eastern sky, inviting us on our adventure. As we return, a steel bow beckons as our doorway to possibility and promise in the West.


Through the gateway we pass; we are coming back, not to something new, but renewed ourselves by tracing our history as Western Americans. What calls us is -- home.

Turning West

After a few days I'm back in a spot with internet access! Since last post we left Philly and spent several days in the Washington, D.C. area.

We walked the Mall area around the Washington Memorial, taking in a view of the White House on the President's birthday, strolling in and through the magnificent World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Korean War Memorial. The memory of these conflicts weighs heavy. I'm glad to know the sacrifices made in these wars will not be forgotten. Yet at the same time I am troubled by how much of our national history is marked by war. The presence of tight, grim security around the Capital area is stern and somewhat oppressive. I am surprised and saddened by how little joy there is here -- vigilant alertness, to be sure, but a decided lack of warmth and hospitality compared to other places we have visited. I suppose this is to be expected, D.C. being the place where our leaders reside. Still taking in the atmosphere here is sobering.

After a day outside in the muggy heat, I looked forward to getting in a few famous air-conditioned museums the next. I felt ready for aspiration and inspiration as a counterpoint to caution and vigilance. Some relief there -- yet the Holocaust Museum is poignant, necessary, and disturbing. Air and Space Museum, hung like a child's bedroom with real airplanes and spaceships, is also infused with the history of our wars. Next time around I'll start with the art museums!

In the swirl of D.C. we hooked up with Cre, Shirley, and Jadyn Murphy. What a blessing to be welcomed into their apartment home, fed, watered, tickled, smiled at and generally loved up. As with other settings, I find it's being with people in an open way that brings a feeling of what matters -- so much of that inhibited in the stone and stone-faced security that surrounds our nation's leaders. I hope and pray they have people in their lives who smile at them! If we could have gotten close enough we would have, perhaps, offered that.

We are turned back West now, with a little over a week to go. We are out of the bustle of the East. As we motored out of Maryland into West Virginia and to Ohio, John Denver of all people crept into out heads . . . "Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains. Shenandoah River . . . Take me home, country roads!"

Declaration of Values

We arrived in Philadelphia, PA on the heels of a swim in Manhattan. Contrasts abound: thousands of people milling about in the commercial glitz of Times Square, fifty or so loosely arranged in Independence Hall at the wellsprings of our governance; multi-story electronic ads giving way to churches and halls adorned with carvings and weathered over 200 years of time; din of taxi horns, music, and sidewalk sellers evaporating into quiet streets marked by subtle plaques noting the greatness of the people who lived and worked at our beginnings; millions of free people buying and selling in the shadow of skyscraper temples to material success; a few hundred milling about the Mecca of America. Nearly everything except the sounds and smells are for sale in New York. Sights and tours of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and environs are free.


We arrived in time for a tour of IH. I'm enriched by the guide's summation of the beginning of our history, in the rooms where we began. He pointed out where the framers of the Declaration of Independence sat in the room where it was conceived. As this and later the Constitution were written, he described how the process of open input, polarizing difference of opinion, and movement toward compromise characterized our governance from the very start.


As some members of Congress are making a show of standing on principal to the detriment of the country, it is clearer to me now why a certain kind of intransigence is out of rhythm with over 200 years of the substance of leadership and governance.

I think America would be stronger if every citizen spent twenty minutes in Independence Hall, with an open mind. I hope mine is more open than it was before.