When your kids are young they ask easy questions. As they age their questions get harder to answer. For our oldest son Will, it did not take long before he was asking hard questions. Frankly, he asked questions all the time! Why does this happen, how does that work and the summer when all he said was “WHAUUT”? I am sure I was not the model of patience with all the questions but I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to field the many questions from my bright, inquisitive first child.
Nowadays his questions are more conversations and they are even more complex and engaging. Every time we talk now, I learn something. Will lives in the Washington, D.C. area and is the Legislative Assistant to a Member of Congress. He advises him on a variety of issues, but specializes in natural resources policy, in particular, forestry and land management.
Recently, Will and I were talking about my blog and the subject of my experiences of living in DC came up. I lived in DC, went to college in DC and met Bill in DC. I am a native Washingtonian. Listening to Will’s stories of working and living in DC I was struck by the permanence of so many things in our nation’s capital intertwined with every changing political scene. I can navigate in my mind the many streets of DC. The buildings in DC remain the same but the players have routinely change. One thing that hasn’t changed in DC is the importance of the written word. Our nation was the first representative democracy to write down the rules that govern itself. Our rules have changed and evolved but the stress has always remained on the written word. Words in DC will forever be scrutinized. As many have learned in the past and more will surely learn in the future, DC is a place where words will make or break you, both for the good and the bad. However in order for the written word in DC to improve it will have to be continually questioned by inquisitive people like my son, Will.
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