here to see.

I bought a new book (Shadow of the Silk Road, by Colin Thubron) when I went home for the wedding. Needless to say, I didn’t get very far before reading–actually sitting down–fell by the wayside amidst last minute wedding planning, rehearsals, and trips to the airport.

So when I read this quote on the train yesterday afternoon, it was as if I were reading it for the first time:

“A hundred reasons clamour for your going. You go to touch on human identities, to people an empty map. You have a notion that this is the world’s heart. You go to encounter the proteann shapes of faith. You go because you are still young and crave excitement, the crunch of your boots in the dust; you go because you are old and need to understand something before it’s too late. You go to see what will happen.”

The boxes are almost all moved out of the apartment. Jon just got a temporary job as a health care activist. And I wear a suit everyday.

Washington is certainly not an empty map, and I don’t know if there is that much heart here; but we are here to see what will happen.