| Funny thing happened at Library of Congress yesterday... |
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I took the day off yesterday to join my oldest son (13) on a field trip to DC. We arived early and walked around the monuments. AT 1245, we had a planned tour of the Library of Congress. I was looking forward to this tour. Although I have spent many years in DC, I have never had a tour of the Library of Congress where the Gutenburg Bible is on display. Our group ended up being about 30 strong and most of them young ladies - my son didn't seem to mind, but that is a topic for another day.
Our tour guide was excellent. She knew everything about everything in the Library of Congress. You could tell that this was her passion. We walked out into the grand hall where one of the inaugural balls is held. Majestic isn't a word that describes it correctly. It is overwhelmingly beautiful, ornate, and it bombards your visual ability to take it all in. The tour guide pointed out that within the bannister of the huge staircases on both sides of the hall were sculptures that represented the trades of the 1500s and 1600s. She had the kids guess what each trade was by looking at the sculpture. Each sculpture looked like a little cupid holding some sort of equipment - a saw for a carpenter, a hammer for a blacksmith, etc. After they had discussed several, the tour guide asked if they noticed that there were no women represented here. She proceeded to describe how women, if they had a trade, would only practice it until they were married and had children. At that time they were expected to put their careers on hold and raise the children. The tour guide then asked the group, how many of you would enjoy doing that. It really rather surprised her when several of the young lady's hands went up almost immediately. She said, slightly under her breath, maybe they didn't understand me.
I smiled to myself. The kids at this school are being taught how to set priorities even at the age of 12 and 13. I thought it kind of funny that the tour guide - as brilliant as she was - had tried to raise some ire in the kids only to find them in agreement. Obviously she hadn't seen that before.
By the way, isn't this the kind of thing we should be really happy about on Mother's Day...that there is a group of young ladies being raised that understand at a very early age the true value of being a mom. |
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