April was the cruellest month

Between April 16 and April 30, the forces of destruction touched down three times between Blacksburg, Va. and Washington, D.C., and we are hoping the bad luck is done.

I am being melodramatic, but these events were traumatic. I will say only that April 16--Emancipation Day in D.C., and the day we finally moved forward on securing a voting voice in Congress--was buffeted by hard cold winds and overshadowed by the tragedy at Lynchburg. Then two weeks later, two of our greatest local buildings--Eastern Market and the Georgetown Public Library--burned out within hours of one another, two three-alarm fires in the same day. Though no arson is suspected, it was just such a bizarre coincidence. They are in very distinct parts of the city, hard to explain if you don't live here.

Here is the piece I did on Eastern Market a couple years ago.

And it was Georgetown Library that once saved me from a nearly fatal case of youth aggravated by heartbreak.I quote the relevant section from a longer post here:

"Every few days [during my first summer in D.C. at age 22), I took a long soggy walk to the Georgetown branch of the D.C. Public Library, which was housed in a spooky old manse at the top of a high hill. There I would load my arms with books to take my mind off, well, off being so goddamn young.

One afternoon I was sitting on the floor in the stacks and I came across a book called My Apprenticeships. Sounded about my speed. I opened it up and was enchanted...."

Our fortune is that the city is more closely united than it ever has been. We feel like a city now, and we have a mayor who is decisive and focused. We have city revenues and political will to repair both these buildings rapidly and, I hope and trust, with exquisite care.

But repair and renewal are not the same as turning back the clock, and loss is loss. What happened Monday will remain in our memories, and the buildings that were then, will not be again.

"By an image we hold on to our lost treasures, but it is the wrenching loss that forms the image, composes, binds the bouquet."
--Colette


[photo of Eastern Market in flames via The Washington City Paper]