Standing in the cold was worth it to hear prayer at Mount Vernon
By Mike Haynes
For someone
who has trudged through snowy streets in blizzard conditions to help reenact
the Boston Tea Party, I suppose it wasn’t that difficult to spend less than an
hour in 32-degree weather – wind chill 16 degrees – to honor George Washington.
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| A Mount Vernon staff member, left, supervises a ceremony Jan. 6 at the tomb of George and Martha Washington in Virginia as two volunteers prepare to move a wreath into the tomb. (Photo by Mike Haynes) |
In December
2003, my wife, Kathy, and I were in Boston for a Simon and Garfunkel reunion
concert. It so happens that on Dec. 16 each year, people gather at the Old
South Meeting House, then march several blocks to Boston Harbor, where folks in
18th century costumes throw fake tea boxes off a small ship into the
water.
Knowing it
probably would be our only chance to participate in defying British taxation,
we walked the whole way to the harbor with snow blowing into our faces. Then we
called a taxi as fast as we could.
Fast-forward
14-plus years, and we found ourselves last month at George Washington’s Mount
Vernon estate outside Washington, D.C. No blizzard this time, but it was
freezing as we waited with six other hardy tourists for the daily wreath-laying
at Washington’s tomb.
Considering
the weather and the small crowd, the woman in charge of the ceremony asked
whether we’d like to speed things up by not unfurling the American flag. A
young woman said no, we should include the flag, so our group saw the entire
event – although in the frigid air, there was no dillydallying.
The short
ceremony was impressive for a couple of reasons.
One was the
fact that anyone would brave the cold just to recite the Pledge of Allegiance
to the flag, hear a prayer read aloud and to place a wreath in front of the two
white, stone monuments containing the remains of George and Martha Washington.
A young
Asian man in the group volunteered to help place the wreath. He saw me taking
photos and afterward asked if I would email some to him. He said the ceremony
was so meaningful to him that he wanted to remember it. Putting his address
into my phone, I found out that he worked at the University of Maryland, but he
said he was leaving soon to return to China. He showed more reverence for the first
president than I think many Americans would.
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| A man who was identified as a U.S. military veteran reads George Washington's prayer for America at a wreath-laying ceremony Jan. 6 at the Washington tomb at Mount Vernon, Virginia. (Photo by Mike Haynes) |
Another
aspect of the event that struck me was the natural inclusion of religion at the
tomb and in the ceremony. A well-worn stone on the wall of the crypt is
engraved with John 11:25-26: “I am the resurrection and the life, saith the
Lord, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
Washington
clearly was a believer, more so than some of the other founders of the nation. He
was open in welcoming various Christian denominations and minority religions
and opposed an official state church like most of Europe had experienced for
centuries, but in his 1796 farewell address upon leaving the presidency, he
left no doubt that religion should play an important role in public life:
“And let us
with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on
minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect
that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”
At the ceremony
last month, another young man who said he was a U.S. military veteran stepped
forward to read Washington’s prayer for America, which the retiring general included
in letters to the 13 state governors in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary
War.
Wearing
gloves and a canvas jacket, the young veteran solemnly read the first commander-in-chief’s
prayer from a clipboard. With Washington’s birthday coming up Feb. 22 and
considering the discord in the nation today, I believe it’s fitting to repeat
all of it:
“I now make it my earnest prayer that
God would have the United States in his holy protection, that he would incline
the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience
to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for
their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their
brethren who have served in the field, and finally, that he would most
graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean
ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were
the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without whose
example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. Grant our
supplication, we beseech thee, through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.”
Kathy and I
take pride in our Boston Tea Party march through a blizzard, but we also are
grateful that we didn’t let the cold keep us from hearing that prayer in front
of the tomb of a statesman.
