monuments, monumental moments

Pike Place Market is a living, breathing monument. Not only do visiting tourists list Pike Place on the "if you miss it, you've missed Seattle" list, but also, people who have never been to Seattle have heard about it, can talk about the flying fish or the fresh produce. For me, Pike Place is a place where I go get my groceries on the weekend; the novelty has worn off and even though I still love the atmosphere and the excitement in the market, it has become slightly ordinary. It's funny, the more I get used to things, the less exciting they seem to be.

In thinking about Berlin in this context, maybe the young people there have seen their own monuments so many times that at some point, like our own, they become invisible. Maybe the monuments become ghosts of themselves to the very people that they are trying to represent. For example, I remember the first time that I ever saw the Pantheon. I was stumbling along after a long night of dancing, turned a corner, and there it was, completely unexpected and like nothing I had ever seen before. I sat down and looked at it in awe, unable to move both because of my sore feet and my mind being completely taken aback by the beauty of the building. I wonder, then, if the Italians respond to the building the same way. Do people who have lived in Rome all their life get rendered motionless when they see it? What about the people who work in the same square. My point with all of this is that familiarity can turn monuments into ghosts for those for whom they serve the most.

P.S. It was my birthday on Tuesday. I have officially joined the Big Kids Club. Most monumental moment in my memory so far this year. My feet are hurting again and maybe I will walk to Pike Place today and see if I can find something extraordinary (or at least bring some freshness back to my grocery shopping).