Some Occurrences and Observations

It's been a week since my last blog and I believe that I have gotten accustomed a bit to living in Washington D.C. It's a very interesting place and I'm already begining to pick up on all the differences between big city, East-coast living and life in Wisconsin.

This is a big city and so things naturally move at a quick pace. Weekday mornings, noons, and 5 o'clock rush hour pack the subways absolutely full. The subway is always a great place to people watch. It is truly the great equalizer, at least in this city. I can think of nowhere else where you will find upperclass businessmen, construction workers, students, whites, blacks, hispanics, asians, those who must be wearing nearly $1,000 dollars in clothing, and those with dirty rags not only together, but sitting almost on top of each other, rubbing shoulders and sharing space while they zoom off to jobs, places, and experiences as varied as their appearances.

The hustle and bustle of the weekday is sharply constrasted by the relatively quiet atmosphere of the weekends. The Congressmen have presumably all flown home. Those who live outside the city stay there. As I mentioned in a previous blog, the city holds more than a million people during the work week. Most make the commute in from Maryland or Virginia either for the day or the week. At week's end, however, all those people go home and the city is left only with those who truly reside here. That number is nearer to 500,000. Effectively, the city's population is reduced by half on the weekends. That's still a large number and don't get me wrong, things are still extremely busy compared to anything you'll find in Green Bay or Madison, much less Oshkosh (just venture up to DuPont or Chinatown on a Saturday night and you'll find hundreds if not thousands of people bar hopping or just hanging around). The relative peace and quiet of the weekends is a nice break, however. Days feel lazy. People walk their dogs, go for rides, sit in the park. Sunday afternoons remind me of the midwest.

One of the things that took (and perhaps is still taking) time to get used to is being a minority. Growing up in Oshkosh, I did have contact with different ethnicities, albeit on a very limited scale. Washington DC is about 65% African American and 32% white and that does take getting used to. I've never known what it felt like to be the only person of a given race in a situation. It's easy to underestimate the strangeness of that feeling until you're actually in that situation. Many times I walk into the CVS Pharmacy by my apartment I'm the only white person. Most of the time that I'm in the Safeway Grocery Store by my apartment I'm one of maybe 2-3 white people. It doesn't bother me and I hope that no one mistakes what I am saying for racism. I mean merely to point out one of the ways that my life here is much different than at home. Indeed, I think that the strangeness of being a minority has all but worn off. I think it has been and will be a learning experience. If anything, it's only further strengthened my convictions about the equality of all men. I don't feel any different from the people whom I live around and grocery shop with. We're all just hungry. There's a beauty in this sort of desegregation that most of us must take for granted in the modern world. I don't ever get the feeling that anyone is thinking about the color of my or anyone else's skin and that's such a Catholic atmosphere.

The people here are busy and perhaps a bit more "professional" in their demeanor, but I am also surprised at how often people are outgoing and kind to strangers. I think I anticipated the East-coast demeanor to be less personable than it really is. This doesn't mean that things are the same as the midwest, however. When you go into a store it is rare (or at least much less likely than at home) for the cashier to say hi or ask you if you found everything ok. Most of the time they won't even tell me how much I owe. I try and at least say thank you when they hand me my things. Sometimes they respond, sometimes they don't. But, for every couple stiff responses or times you're ignored there are people who are generally very friendly and helpful. I've seen people obviously confused on the subway and someone will always stop to help them out. People will get up and stand in order to let an elderly woman or handicapped man take their seat on the subway. The security guards at the grocery store not only told me I was dropping money on the way out one day, but we had a good laugh about it. I was riding my moped in the city the other day and I heard a woman in the car next to me say, "I know you didn't ride that moped all the way from Wisconsin." (She was referencing my license plates). I ended up getting into a little conversation with this woman while we were stopped at the red light. It turned out that she was from Milwaukee and so of course knew exactly where Oshkosh was. Things like that make DC a more pleasant place to live. It gets a bad rap.

Yes, there are security guards at the grocery store. And at the Target. And pretty much everywhere else. I can only assume, using superior logic, that it is because they are actually needed. I've lived here for about two weeks now (counting the week when we moved my junk) and I've never seen or been in an experience that looked unsafe. I think all of the security guards must have something to do with that. The police presence is something new as well. When you ride past the Capital there is literally at least one if not two or three cops standing at no greater than 12 feet apart all around the huge area that the Capital sits on. I suppose this is necessary. My apartment also must be the area where the helicopters that circle the White House and Capital turn around. Every day, maybe once an hour, these two huge military helicopters fly in low and turn around just outside my window. It's intense.

It's also eye-opening to see how hard a lot of people here have it. Many of the people that I live around are quite poor and their lifestyle is so different from what I'm used to. It is very normal here at the grocery or any other kind of store for customers to put their items on the counter or conveyor belt and tell the cashier the order to ring in the items. Many people simply don't have much money and so they grab what they think they can afford and they have to watch as the cashier rings up their stuff. They take the most important things first and the things that they don't need last. If they go over they ask the cashier to put the leftovers back. They don't just buy them because they grabbed them. They don't have the money. It makes me more appreciative of the situation that I was blessed into.

The sacramental options in this city are astounding. Not only are there like 7 daily mass options as the Basillica on campus, but there is also two daily masses at the parishes throughout the city (one of which is walking distance from my apartment). Confessions are heard daily at that parish and all the others, not to mention that they are heard for about 6 hours daily at the Basillica as well. That might be seriously be one of the greatest blessings I've ever had in my life.

I found a parish to attend on Sundays. St. Mary Mother of God is located in Chinatown and I attend the Traditional Latin Mass there at 9 on Sunday mornings. They have been having the TLM there (1962 missal) since long before Pope Benedict's motu proprio unleashed the Latin Mass to all priests, so this parish looks to have a very healthy and devoted group of Traditional Catholics. I could, and probably will, speak at much greater length about the Latin Mass and Traditional Catholicism in a different blog, but suffice it to say that the beauty is astounding. I have thought of myself as a Traditional Catholic for awhile and now I finally have the TLM available to me every week. The men almost all wore suits and the women almost all wore veils and beautiful 1920's style Great Gatsby dresses. I finally feel so at home.

My greatest joy of my entire experience here so far was the priest at my new parish. It almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking of him now. I couldn't ever describe him even nearly as well as I should, but he's truly an inspiring priest. You couldn't even imagine my surprise when this older, chubbier man walked to the lectern and began giving his homily... in the Queen's English! Now, if you know much about history then you will know that English Catholics have been a rarity at least since the reign of Bloody Mary. Englishmen are Anglicans and Anglicanism is (or was) so close to Catholicism that it just kicked out and replaced the Church in England since King Henry VIII and the English Reformation. I can honestly say that I've rarely seen an English Catholic on television (if I ever even have) much less one in real life. Much less one that is a priest. Much less one that is the priest of my TLM new parish. Much less in the middle of Washington DC. Needless to say, it's strange and I'd love to hear his story.

Anyway, this isn't the greatest part. He began his homily on the Theological virtues. I leaned in and listened, still astonished by his accent. As he started speaking I realized that everything about him reminded me of someone. His demeanor, his accent, definitely his thinking and speaking style, and even his appearance. This is C.S. Lewis! You may all think I'm a nerd and that's fine, but I love Mr. Lewis like I knew the man. He's been at least as influential in my life as many of the people that I actually know and his work echos eternally in my own existence and my own eternity. As I mentioned in my first post, if Mr. Renner isn't the man to introduce me to heaven (God willing that I make it; Lord have mercy on such a reprobate as myself) it will undoubtedly be Mr. Lewis. You get the idea of how happy I was with this priest. He must be a Lewis fan. Maybe it's his cousin. His homily was straight Lewis in style, presentation, wording, and even personality. He was so reverent and yet witty that you couldn't help but chuckle. I will paraphrase a few of the best moments that I can remember from his homily and the Lewis readers should be able to pick him up immediately. "Faith is essentially spoken of in two different ways. Faith can mean the actual things that we believe about God and it can mean the act of trusting in God. When we pray for an increase in faith we aren't asking God to give us new bits about Him to think about (haha), but to increase our trust and clinging to Him." "Faith, Hope, and Love are called the Theological virtues because they pertain to God. Faith in God, Hope in God, and Love in God. They are not named Theological because theologians necessarily do them. In fact, I've always made the argument that in the modern world it's quite the opposite." There were many more great lines that I can't remember. You had to be there, I suppose. Everything in him rings with Lewis. God bless that priest and I can't wait for next Sunday to hopefully hear him speak again. It's such a great preparation for the Eucharist.

Another interesting note about my parish, it is also the parish of famous politician and political commentator Pat Buchanan. If you don't know who Pat Buchanan is you are missing out. I've followed and loved the guy for a few years now so I was so happy to find out that I'd be going to the same church as him. He's one of the few last true conservatives in the country (not the neo-cons we've had for decades) and probably the only truly Catholic politician that I can think of. He's got a way about him that allows him to get away with things no one else could. He's really feisty and politically incorrect and gets into hot water quite a bit. He's also one of the only conservatives who calls out the so-called conservative Republican party. He's on television often, usually cable news networks.

He talks about race a lot and reverse discrimination. Here's Mr. Buchanan on Republican and Bush Cabinet Member Colin Powell endorsing Democrat Obama for the President:


Mr. Buchanan on Affirmative Action:


Mr. Buchanan on McCain:


Lol:


Anyone interested should check out Pat vs. The Neo-Cons as well. He's one of the last bastions of political truth in this country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugesi_gaqLU

Anyway, he was at mass and seemed extremely kind. A lot of the parishioners said hello to him and he said hello and talked with a few people after mass. Awesome guy.

What? You didn't think my blog would get political? I moved to Washington D.C.


I started classes today, but I only had one and it was introductory. I intend to write another entry either tomorrow or Wednesday more particularily about school. I can tell you that things went well on my first day and that I am very excited about seeing what the next few weeks bring.

Dominus Vobiscum,
Taylor