Old World In The New World Meets A Still Older World. That's right, we're in Colonial Williamsburg, John D. Rockefeller's inspired rebuilding of one of North America's oldest cities. But what we're watching in the background is a spirited Chinese New Year's celebration, dragon not yet arrived. Somehow it looked perfect there in early America, two old and refined cultures meeting each other. Meanwhile, if you squint at the background, what you see is the Wren Building, oldest university building still in use in the U.S., centerpiece of William and Mary College, where Margaret Thatcher once served as Chancellor. Many maintain that Sir Christopher Wren himself designed the much-restored hall (lots of fires over the course of time), while other sources, including the current Wikipedia, maintain it was built in his style then dedicated to him. Our monumental neoclassic (and, alas, modern) buildings in Washington DC tend to be clumsily out of scale, even the U.S. Capitol, much less the squat Jefferson Memorial, so one's first and subsequent views of the Wren impress with its pleasing proportionality, just like Jefferson's works, which came later, but in his case inspired by Palladio and the Italians rather than the British esthetic of Wren and all of the Williamsburg reproduction, worth your visit, by the way. Of course, I would have known none of this had I not been in the company of Francesca Maestas, William and Mary alumna with a distinguished career ahead in foreign policy, as engaged and knowledgeable a guide now as during her college years. If you served with me in Bogota or Rome, you know her parents, my dear friends Larry and Cesira Maestas. And thanks to her friend David Ernyey, who took the photo. Below in comments a few more shots from this memorable visit.
