I intended to explore a New Place in Silver Spring, MD, today, as a doctor’s appointment took me up there, but plans got waylaid when the blankety-blank eye doctor dilated my pupils, causing my eyeballs to feel like somebody had ripped a bandage off of them in the bright August sun. I was in no shape to go around ogling and photographing things.

I made it home with no Plan B in place and no desire for a Plan B, actually. Later though, after I peeled myself off the couch to head out to the hospital and physical therapy, eyeballs still a bit raw, I remembered the Wesley Theological Seminary, which is kinda sorta on my way to the hospital.

So, I decided to stop in and see what ol’ Wesley was up to. Turns out he has a nice little campus here, although it wasn’t anything like what I had imagined. Because the Methodist Church has so many beautiful historical church buildings in DC, I kind of expected the Wesley Theological Seminary to be similar—old stones, perhaps, a little neo-Gothic styling perhaps.

Well, it wasn’t like that (what is it they say about “expectations being disappointments waiting to happen”?). The buildings were all modern brick, long and low, in the 1950s and 1960s style—not totally unlike my high school. But the campus did have a nice grove of shady trees that was a refuge for my aching eyes, a fountain statue of Moses striking the rock in the desert, and a large white bell-tower with a beautiful fountain pool, which were better than anything I could have imagined. There was also a statue of John Wesley, but it was down a steep grassy lawn, with no sidewalk or stairs, so I decided to admire him from a distance.   

Anyway, a totally improvised day, a semi-bad attitude “let’s-just-get-this-done” day, but, still, the power of the New Place was there—taking me out of my frazzled mindset to enjoy the peaceful setting and making my world a little bigger.