Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statues.

[Larger.]

The statues at the top of the hill near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. I didn’t take any photos at The Wall. (Regardless of how I feel about the current war, I deeply respect veterans.) After seeing the WWII Memorial and its grandness at the end of The Reflecting Pool, I honestly, I thought to myself, “This is it?” Until I started reading and walking and realized how many names there were on that wall and that the monumentality of that monument is in the fact that all of the names are listed. Then I realized why my father couldn’t go down the hill on his first visit, why he used to have a replica of the statues at the top in his office before he retired from the Army. I realized, but I could never understand.

He was there. He lost friends, eventually a cousin. I felt like some stupid kid who will never get it, staring at my sweaty reflection in the black stone — thanking God, the Universe, someone, that my father’s name never made it there.

For Photo Friday: Real Life.