National Gallery East ground level.

The Dupont Circle metro escalator always strikes hard. Was in D.C. covering the National Association of Realtors midyear meeting for Inman News and stayed near Dupont Circle, so I had the pleasure of riding the looooooooooong escalator up a lot. It’s a sharp aesthetic experience each time, believe it or not. The blue sky pours hued light and its incessant feeling of freedom down into the slanting tunnel to all the tunnel-dwellers as it peaks above the oval rim of concrete wall that frames the entrance.

Etched in the concrete a few feet below the silo-like rim of entrance-concrete-wall is an ill-chosen quote from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. The first six words promises an imagery that matches the glorious ride up: “Thus in silence in dreams’ projections,” but the incongruous rest leaves you feeling doubly empty: 1. you miss an idea to match the elation that comes with the ride up and 2. the sensation of opportunity lost, is almost overwhelming.