Being in Washington D.C. on Memorial Day was an emotional experience. The nation's capitol was wearing its finest green, the temperature was in the low 80's and, despite the amount of people on the grounds, the memorials were easily viewed and experienced. This trip to D.C., Pennsylvania and Virginia was a deeply personal time for me. I found myself understanding more about war and fidelity, love and loss and the power of men's beliefs than at any time in my life. The civil war was a requirement of building a solid and unified state; it most probably would have occurred at some time during our history, over something or other, had it not been states' rights and slavery. Mankind has the perpetual need to exert opinion and power over another until things come to blows. The southern states paid (and still pay) a terrible price for its pride and although the union did what needed to be done to preserve itself and end the ownership of one man of another, I have come away with a deeper understanding of the enduring pain of loss--of those things so dear and irreplaceable. "Am I not a man?" cried one slave to his master. Are we not all men? Dangerfield Newby's wife wrote to him, “I want you buy me as soon as possible, for if you do not get me someone else will. Dear Husband, you [know] not the trouble I see; the last two years have been like a trouble dream. It is said that the master is in want of money. If so, I know not what time he may sell me, and then all my hopes of the future are blasted, for there has been one bright hope to cheer me in all my troubles, and that is to be with you…”. He was carrying that note containing her words when he went with John Brown to Harper's Ferry in an attempt to start a slave uprising in 1859 which ultimately failed. At this time on our blog, I have posted slides containing material from our first days in Washington. What will follow will be selections from our trip as we went to view the Smithsonian musems (something we have always anticipated), the great battlefields of Gettysburg and Antietam, the civil war medicine musems, Harper's Ferry and the confederacy of the south musems and colonial Williamsburg. We remember Gettysburg Pennyslvania as a dedicated and sacred site and Abraham Lincoln's exquisite speech. It was also the turning point in the civil war. Up until that time in 1864 the fate of the union was still undecided. The 1862 battle of Antietam, Maryland was a loss for the union forces and remains the single bloodiest day in terms of loss of life on this continent. Harper's Ferry shows us that violence was near the flash point in 1859, two years before the firing on Ft. Sumpter. Civil War medicine musems show us the agony and suffering from both sides of the conflict and ironically catapult us toward breakthroughs in medicine that eventually saves lives. The confederacy musems reveal to us that those who fought against us really are our brothers and we weep at seeing their suffering. Colonial Williamsburg reveals touches of England that remind us that we wouldn't have survived without her. We hope you enjoy what we've shared and will stop back by frequently to share our other pictures.

My Favorite Things

This blog site will deal with my favorite things--family and history, with stuff woven in about medical and psychiatric history--I'm facinated with stories and trivia that people have left us detailing everyday struggles and the understanding of what life meant as they interpreted it. I hope you enjoy reading and I hope you feel like adding your thoughts, questions and stories too. Kris