On the Hill

It is a good evening to be on the Hill.

Inside an office building, the waning sunlight falls softly across the furniture as the last set of artificial lights are turned off. Computers softly humming, stacattoed by a few plinking email notifications, all else is quiet. A staffer weaves through the main staff room, amazed, because this is the first time she is the last person in the office to leave. And it's all sort of amazing for her, because she's new, and she's realizing for the first time, really, that she is the pen of a Congressman. The pen of the Congressman. Not quite writing State of the Unions, but not a bad start. And it's all still swirling in her mind, and she ponders for a moment all the late nights this office had seen, and how many more it would host. There was so much to be done, the work would never really stop. In a way, politics is sort of like military service, because old staffers never die, they just get jobs off the Hill. The work remains long after their career pass the Hill phase. Sort of a Tolkeinian concept of a character’s coming in and going out in season as a part of the larger Story with a capitol S…

Outside, the daffodils are up, under the branches of the barely blooming trees with tiny green leaves. The flowers are yellow, some with orange centers, others are white. There’s a distant, kind scent on the almost warm air. And the fountains in the parks by the offices were turned on today, for the first time in 2005. A young couple is walking through the park, probably staffers as well. Maybe they met at a briefing, a luncheon on health care; maybe they work in adjoining offices, or bumped into each other in a committee room when their members were busy in a debate. Regardless, they are walking in the twilight, hand in hand. She is carrying a bouquet of dusky yellow roses and has the air of floating. Maybe it’s the first time they’re holding hands. You never know on a spring day like this.

Tortilla Coast is overflowing with people reveling in the fact that this is the second to last day of recess. Next week is going to be hectic, and today is an occasion to celebrate – to take off a little early and stay out a little later, just because they can.

But, in all, it is a quiet night. The staffer has found her way outside of the building now and is enjoying her first deep breath of fresh spring air in hours. She’s not in front of a computer and her phone isn’t ringing. And that warrants a smile.

And it is a very good evening to be on the Hill.