I was in Cleveland the other day, enjoying a lunchtime stroll, enjoying the spacious downtown, the vast public squares—the summer light from the lake reminded me of Saint Petersburg or some other Arctic Circle city in the midst of an all-night-long day, not that I've ever been to Saint Petersburg—when I spotted what I thought was a pretty cool statue of George Washington. I don't know what it was exactly that caused me to stop; I think I liked the Art Deco aspect; I'd never seen such a curved George Washington. I stopped in my tracks, and then grabbed my camera. As I began to photograph, I realized in the precise moment I was looking at George Washington in the digital frame that something was happening in my peripheral vision. When I turned I saw the security guard, guarding the federal building, who then asked me what I was doing--you are not supposed to take pictures of federal building, apparently. "Taking a picture," I said, “of, uh, George Washington." (George Washington was standing right in front of the federal building being guarded.) I was a little shocked, that I was being stop mid George Washington picture taking, and I wanted to say something else, but I knew immediately that that was not necessary. I felt as if the security guard and I simultaneously realized that we did not want to do the wrong thing; we were on a very similar page at that very moment. I am merely postulating, of course, but what I was thinking was that we both did not want to wind up on some talk show or in a tabloid newspaper or anything along those lines, talking about freedom and George Washington and security. “Just don't take a picture of the building,” he said, in a kind way. “And we’ll be OK.” I agreed, and tried to talk about how much I liked the sculpture with him, but there was to be no further discussion. Our understanding was over, in fact; I could feel us parting brain ways. Here is the photo, with the building Liquid Paper-ed, of course, for security purposes. I think I'm cool with the tree.
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