Another Day of Surprises

I'm beginning to think that I'm going to have to come up with a new topic, or at the very least, a new series of titles.  Needless to say, today once again did not turn out as planned.  That "unique" event associated with a helicopter and the U.S. Capitol I told you about yesterday.  Well, it appears it is not so nearly as rare as I imagined, since it happened again this morning.

Helicopter on the Capitol Plaza

As I was being shooed away from the scene of what I later learned was the second of two days of emergency response drills, I decided to exercise just a tiny little bit of civil disobedience and question the Capitol Police Officer who was doing the shooing.  When I asked, "Why can't I walk through the plaza?" in my normal fashion I was initially responded to with a shrug and vague arm waving in the general direction of the helicopter.  Since the rotors weren't turning, I sensed no immediate danger and said, "I can see the helicopter, but I want to know why I can't walk toward it.  I don't think asking why is an unreasonable request."  At that point he started moving in my general direction giving every indication that I might be on the receiving end of some zip cuffs rather than an answer, so I skedaddled. 

None of that was what I expected when I woke up this morning, but the little jolt of adrenaline it caused was a welcome boost of energy, and I didn't end up in zip cuffs.

During my lunchtime walk, I was minding my own business when a series of relief sculptures caught my attention and brought my mind back to my freshman and sophomore years in college.

A Midsommer Nights Dream Relief Sculpture

Back during those heady days, "Doc" White, with his unique perspective and teaching style that challenged us pie eyed freshman to challenge our assumptions and start seeing our circumstances for what they were rather than swallowing the narrative that was being fed to us had me convinced that it would be a good idea to double major in English as well as Mechanical Engineering.  That coupled with the fact that, had I been successful, I would have graduated with a B.S. in English made it seem like the pursuit might be worth the work.

That notion was soundly removed from the list of some of my other ambitious goals when I encountered the last of the "Four Horsemen" of the Mechanical Engineering Department as my Dynamics professor.  I'm not sure what he was professing, but let's just say that I was near the top of the class with an exam average that was hovering around 65%.  It was tough, and the amount of reading and writing for my "extra" English classes was consuming vast quantities of what I liked to call time.

Before dropping my pursuit of a B.S. in English, I did work my way through two semesters of Shakespearean studies.  I learned among other things that Bill S. was a rabble rouser and bit of a rogue, inventing new words from thin air and then weaving them into a bawdy verbal "tapestry that was brilliant in color and blinding in intensity" (Patrick F. McManus, whom if you haven't read his short stories, I highly recommend them).  Bill S. was also a man of the people writing plays to entertain.  Through all of that he became a giant of English literature and culture to the extent that the Folger Shakespeare Library is a prominent landmark along the walking route that I frequent.

I didn't expect that a landmark I pass every day would evoke this kind of freewheeling mind dance, and I don't know why it triggered it today.  I also don't know if I made the right decision some 22 odd years ago in applying most of my focus on the Engineering trade rather than the study of literature.  What I do know, is that my life and my walk today were richer for the fortunate synchronicity of both of those events separated by a two decade time gap.

I'm grateful for "Doc" White and the impression he made that I fondly remembered today.