Albert Einstein Memorial

This is my favorite place in all of Washington, DC. It was the first place I went after I arrived in DC on Thursday for the Split This Rock! Festival: Poetry of Witness and Provocation (which was kick-ass, in and of itself).

I spent an hour sitting with this bronze larger-than-life guy, offering to take photos of the few tourists who found their way so that everyone in their group would be in the picture, writing, trying to find a sunny, comfy place to sit since the wind was so darn cold.

This place is special to my kids, too. The first time I took them to it, we arrived around midnight via train, they were SOOOOO wired, so we went to the statue. Of course, it was dark. It was April, so the temperature was comfortable, even that late. Both were ABSOLUTELY convinced they saw Albert actually move. Then, a few years later, we discovered that the statue talks back to you, if you are standing in just the right place.

At the risk of over-using the concept, there is a sacred energy in this little courtyard with the scent of boxwood wofting about. I think the statue amplifies it (the sacred energy, not the boxwood), but I'm guessing it was there before, and is made more so by the gathering of people to this lesser-known monument on the National Mall, quite close to the Viet Nam Memorial.