INTERCOURSE

buxton, me to washington, dc.
so we moved to maine and for several years travel was limited to visiting family back in s.f.
when i was sixteen we finally went somewhere new, our nation's capitol to visit my aunt (the same one from EQUATOR) who was there studying. we arrived in a blizzard that produced about 2 inches of snow and the entire city shut down. as it began to move again we visited a hundred and one museums - it was absolutely amazing! aside from the glorious john singer sargents and georgia o'keefes, i also got to see the ruby slippers judy garland wore in the wizard of oz (click here to see why i might get such a kick out of that). after we had our fill of museums, or rather, once my step dad couldn't take another minute of looking at paintings, we rented a car and drove to amish country.

i'd never heard about them before, so it was kind of exotic. as we were making the drive, my stepfather, who is a retired baptist minister, shocked everyone in the car by making the risque old joke 'you know what town comes before intercourse? foreplay! hahaha! you know what town comes after intercourse? climax! hahaha!' i think he had a few more, but i was so busy being mortified i tuned them out. now, i find it as funny as he did, and love that he shamelessly shared his cracked sense of humor with the rest of us.

while in DC i read the declaration of independence and much of the constitution (granted it was a homework assignment), and i was struck by the enormous promise my country held. this was probably the beginning of my personal brand of patriotism - pride in what the country could be and hopefully would be some day. don't get me wrong, we have a ways yet to go, but we have a path with a little light showing the way, and not to get too political here, but if we temper capitalism a little (profits are grand, greed is not) and keep working on equality and race issues, we will get there.