I think that every citizen should visit Washington, D.C. once every 5 years or so. Make it 10 if need be. Further, I think that government funds should be appropriated to facilitate this. A tax break every few years to put toward the pilgrimage. Every citizen needs to visit monuments and read for themselves the ideals held by the people in the midst of founding a nation, and they need to witness for themselves the language of civility and intellect given to a citizenry.

My favorite things of the D.C. visit were the Library of Congress and the Phillips Collection. Regarding the LOC: I had no idea of the vastness of its physical size or of its imperative. As the tour guide described the founding vision and the undertaking of the construction of a vessel that would be worthy of that vision, I felt deeply sad about the lack of such sensibility in contemporary patriotism. Where is our resolve to build? And when did we lose the corresponding imperative of responsibility?

At the Phillips, we saw the famous Rodin and many other once-in-a-lifetime sees. Amazing! We sat for a long while in a small room adorned with Rothkos. It was the perfect setting. If you can sit on the bench and gaze at them in the absence of visual noise, the experience becomes like a meditation. What at first seems like a band of color transforms into shifting dimensions and images as the visual centers of your brain generate patterns, which are often cliches not unlike dreams. Perhaps this activity is a wakeful conduit of that subconscious neural activity.

It's been awhile since I've been to D.C., so I don't know if it's always been like this—probably it has—but this time D.C. had a decidedly Potemkin-village feel. There are almost no ads on the subway, for example. And the floors of the subway cars are carpeted! The people at the core of the city are predominently preppies and wheeler-dealers; all dress in the bland lines of Ann Taylor, JCrew, Abercrombie and Fitch, or some bespoke bureaucratic garments of the same. When I overheard people talking, whether in person or on a cell phone, the topic was who-knew-who or I-can-get-you-in-with. People lie to save face; they'll kick you out of restaurants with a transparent excuse or tell you their restaurant doesn't serve dessert. In short, it's a city of facades.

After several days among the preppies we missed our Seattle hipsters.