It was a sunny but very breezy day and there were thousands being blown here and there in the wind and other natural and unnatural forces. Swept up individually and en masse across the Mall. Around the Washington Monument. Down to the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. Across streets and parking lots. Not just pink but brownish, tan, tawny, colors of all varieties. They were so thick at some points that you could barely see a few feet ahead of you.
That was the crowds of people. Tourists.
And what we could see of the cherry blossoms were nice, too. But we didn't stay long. The mass of humanity was oppressive, so we wandered our way to a Metro stop and packed ourselves in with a hundred or so others in the train car. Standing all the way back to Alexandria.
I don't know how anyone could have really absorbed the essence of nature and beauty while squeezing through the crowd and being jostled this way and that by the surging masses. It seemed more a grand delusion than a walk among the trees. Almost as if the people had been hypnotized and were wandering around in a drug-induced daze thinking that there must be some reason why this is attractive. That there must be some reason why they were there. They just couldn't figure out why. I couldn't at least.
Next year a weekday. Next year at night. I hear the crowds are gone then. I hear the beauty surrounds you as the petals fall like snow in the glow of the of the path lights.
