Reflections

A memory from my childhood: Two five year old girls on the sidewalk of a city in the southern United States. Both are wearing shorts and summer tops. One has short blonde hair and fair skin and is standing watching her friend trying to fix her bike chain. This little girl has a full head of curly red hair and is crouching down trying to position the chain on the gears. She tells the other girl to hold the foot pedal still while she adjusts the chain, and to not move the foot pedal. The little girl being told this went ahead and did it anyway. She pushed on the pedal and the little red haired girl screamed and jumped up with a mauled bloody fingernail. They rushed to the other girl’s nearby home where the momma doctored the injured finger.

This story is about myself and my very best friend, Vicki. Guess which one moved the pedal after being told not to? Yes, it was me. I have regretted that action ever since. I don’t know why I was being defiant. I was only 5. It did teach me a lesson about impulse and thinking things through. I think I probably apologized and that we remained friends…at least until we turned 6 and I moved to another state.

Vicki, I hope you forgive me and know that I learned a lesson.

Why am I writing about this now? Well, in the past month I have had the reccurring urge to go to Washington, D. C. and go to the reflecting pool and stick my finger in the water. Not that I could at the moment, because it has been drained for repair. But, after the recent renovations came apart (sabotage or not) I know that at least one person was charged with damaging it. I think the case is still pending. He pleaded innocent. People were being blamed for damaging the pool and I even saw a video of a female tourist sticking her hand in it and maybe taking a souvenir piece of the weird blue lining.

i never would have gone up there and stuck my finger in the pool. I can easily fantasize the consequences and I don’t want to go to jail for acting on a silly urge.

I did share my urge on Facebook after my cousin L. shared something about how someone should go there and taunt the ones in charge by standing by the pool with a finger near the water and saying “Look! I am not touching it!” in a teasing way. Seeing the sharing of my urge on Facebook, my Aunt J. called me and left a hard to hear message on my phone. All I could make out was “…putting your finger in the reflecting pool…”. So, I called Aunt J. back and we had a good catch up chat. She pointed out the fact that the reflecting pool did not need a blue liner…the whole idea of the blue color comes from the reflection of the sky in the water. Thank you Aunt J!

Here are 2 photos I took from the Lincoln Memorial of the Washington Monument and blue sky in the Reflecting Pool over ten years ago.