Day 447

Tonight was the President's State of the Union address. Needless to say, today was crazy and chaotic. Don't worry, I promised to not talk politics to you all, and trust me, I am way too tired, way too fiesty and way too irritated right now to utter one more word. I'm just very frustrated about the State of our Union. It's hard to live and breathe and care so much...ugh, nevermind, you're saved from my soapbox tonight! I really just don't want to talk about it.

But just one quick reflection on tonight...

So tonight I was stuck at work WAY later than I should have been. I finally get out to my car, but nope, I'm not moving anywhere because all traffic around the Capitol has been stopped. This doesn't work for me since I park on the Capitol Drive. And by the way, it is FREEZING outside tonight in our Nation's Capital.

So I watch the Supreme Court Justices go by. Then Secreatry Rice. Then the Vice President. Finally, the President's motorcade whizzes by me. Okay, he's in position, so now I can get in my car. I pull through our security barricades, but nope...still stuck. I drive to one exit, then another, then another, the whole time at least 20 Capital Police officers and Secret Service are just watching me, because I'm literally the only one on the road. Finally, they let me through a checkpoint. Staff ID, check. Car inspection, check. Get to the next checkpoint. Staff ID, check. Car inspection, check. Same story through two more checkpoints.

An hour later, I'm finally on my way home, which, by the way, is 14 blocks from the Capitol. I secretly have road rage anyway (Poor DC drivers, I take all my frustrations out on them), so you can imagine my state of being. Not good. And as I'm pouting at a light, being miserable and feeling sorry for myself, I look over at the park across the street. There is a homeless man, coatless, wrapped in a thin blanket, sitting on a concrete stoop. Wow, I am pathetic. I just put my head down, begged for his forgiveness, and prayed to God that He keep him warm tonight.

This city does this to me...there is so much good in it, and so much bad. There is extraordinary beauty lined with our dirtiest and poorest. There are people like me, so fortunate and blessed with everything I could ever really need, who are too busy worrying about themselves to see what's in front of them. God points this out to me a lot and I am grateful to him that he puts me in check almost every day. And this is where my frustration comes from. As my Blackberry keeps buzzing tonight, emails from both the Left and Right reacting and slinging mud and making promises, I pray that all this partisan bullshit will end and that real work will be done in order to help those people who can't help themselves.

Lucky you. I just erased a whole paragraph full of lecturing and venting. Because really, it doesn't matter what I say. It only matters what I do. One of my favorite lines is from Gandhi, "Be the difference you want to see in the world." I think I'll stop there tonight. And I'll try my best to start there tomorrow.