A few years ago, when I first started going to Washington DC regularly to lead a sitting group, my friend Eileen would take me to a "tourist" site each visit…
Arlington National Cemetery, or one of the monuments. They are not necessarily tourist sites in a superficial, "let's not really pay any attention while here, yet buy some souvenirs to testify to my presence," kind of way. They struck me more like pilgrimage sites, reminding me of places in India or Burma, where people often come with a sense of purpose, of intention. Perhaps they come to commemorate someone they loved, or feel a part of something bigger than themselves and their daily concerns. Perhaps they want the sense of stepping into the center of history instead of feeling marginalized, or hope to render immediate and concrete that which has seemed so make believe and far away. Or even if th