So long BFG

After 28 years resting at Hains Point, this sleepy giant-a wonderful DC monument and a favorite of mine-has moved! The Awakening, created by artist J.Seward Johnson, was transplanted this week across the river into Maryland. And I'm sad to see him go.

I first discovered Hains Point with some of my intern buddies. One of them, his last name Hains, insisted we visit this 'namesake' place. One cold winter evening we did; and I have been bringing people there ever since. After taking a full-time job in DC I used to run to Hains Point after work. I felt like it was a place where I could clear my head, and feel distanced from the fast-pace of the city. What better place to think than in a giant palm?! The statue has always reminded me of a scripture in 2 Ne 1: 13 & 23
• • •
"O that ye would awake; awake from a deep asleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe.
"Awake, my sons; put on the armor of arighteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust."
• • •
That's what The Awakening represents to me. The strength of man, shaking off the shakles and arising from the dust (literally) to a better and new life.