How Sweet It Is

I had a joyful experience in DC a week ago. I drove from Baltimore with my daughter to see a play, A Flea in Her Ear, at The Source Theater at 14th and T Street. A friend of my daughter was a member of the cast. The play was great but the post play experience was the beautiful part.

I was born in Washington and grew up there, went to high school in the city and graduated in 1968, the year my mother says “the wheels came off the cart,” with the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. During the riots after the King assassination the 14th Street corridor was hard hit. It remained blighted for decades afterward. I had not been in that neighborhood for forty years before last Sunday.

After the show a group of us walked a few blocks north to Busboys and Poets for dinner. It was a revelation to me, a world unimaginable forty years ago. There was a thriving nightlife scene, people everywhere on the street and in the restaurants. It was as diverse, global and eclectic a mix of people you could imagine mingling peacefully and happily.

For me it was like seeing the resurrection of my hometown. It was joy to behold and experience. I rejoice in having lived to see the day.