This Thursday is Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday. We treated ourselves to a day at his memorial on Sunday - the first day in a long time where we could go outside without bundling up in 14 layers to avoid frostbite.
Perhaps I exaggerate.
In any case. We spent the day wandering around the western end of the National Mall, enjoying the sunshine and greater than 60 degree temperatures. I took a quick 5 minutes to lean against a column and sketch the man himself. Perhaps not my best drawing, but I enjoyed the swiftness of it - the quick lines coming together - the quiet and solemnity of the space.
There are signs at the entrance to the hall that houses this magnificent sculpture that ask for quiet, for respectful behavior, and in a world where it seems no one is quiet or respectful anymore, it's a joy to see so many embracing it. I marveled at the number of languages that I heard - at how many people from other countries had come to pay their respects to a man that worked so hard to hold our country together.
We'd gone, a couple of weeks ago, to the exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American History on Abraham Lincoln's life. There is an online exhibition, too, and if you have a moment, click over there and enjoy it. It was exceedingly well done.
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In other news, it is February, people. Dang.
I don't like February. February is slump time. February is blech time. February throws you a 60 degree day and then follows up with 6 weeks of the cruelest cold. I just checked the 10-day forecast, and the temperatures go down the whole time. February may be the shortest month, but somehow it really feels like the longest. February sucks the creative core out of the center of my body and throws it out into the yard, where it sits under a blanket of snow waiting for the spring thaw.
Have I mentioned that I don't like February? It's funny. When I go back and look at my archives, February is always very slim. I can't even blog in February.
How do you get through February? Embrace the cold? Huddle under the covers? Drink? I'd like to know. If it works for you, I may try it.
Bleh.
Hee hee -- I grit my teeth and work too much and take naps when I get home from work and seldom paint anything worth discussing. And then March comes and I wonder why I wasted an entire month ...
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LOVELY drawing -- fantastic!
I actually like February much more than January. The days are getting longer. I don't have to drive home in the dark anymore. And though the daytime temp might climb into the 60s or 70s sometimes, the night sky is still clear which makes it good for stargazing.
ReplyDeleteI envy you being in Washington this spring. You will get to see the cherry blossoms.
I agree completely with you about February! And oddly, it's my birthday month, doesn't help. Still sucks, just more. And smack dab in the middle of this sad month, is Valentine's Day! As if we weren't all broke from Christmas, spend more money on useless, crap! Feel the pressure to create ROMANCE! Don't you need another stuffed animal holding a red heart that when you pull it's finger, it sings "What a Wonderful World?" And chocolate! Chocolate that I can't eat because I'm a fatty-boom-a-latty!
ReplyDeleteUm, sorry...time to put the cuckoo back in the clock. Happy February everybody!
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