#38: Witness the Purple Shadows on Jefferson's birthday

            You know what? I tried my best. I asked off work a week early so that I could go see the Purple Shadows on the Lawn “sometime before dawn” on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. I woke up at 5:35 and was walking toward the Lawn with Charlotte a little before 6am. When we were walking up the Lawn, I knew something was wrong. There were pictures being taken, but not of people. It was still very dark, but the Purple Shadows had already come and gone and left their wreath by the Jefferson statue. Rumor has it they arrived around 5:20, nearly an hour and a half before actual sunrise. Happy birthday TJ, I know you must support Dunkin Donuts for all the fourth years who dejectedly sought solace in fatty pastries after a disappointingly early morning.

            Here’s a link to a movie someone shot last year of the Purple Shadows in case you’re curious…and The Honor Men poem where they got the name.

The Honor Men
The University of Virginia writes her highest degree on the souls of her sons. The parchment page of scholarship-the colored ribbon of a society-the jeweled emblem of a fraternity-the orange symbol of athletic prowess-all these, a year hence, will be at the best mementos of happy hours-like the withered flower a woman presses between the pages of a book for sentiment's sake.
 
But...

If you live a long, long time, and hold honesty of conscience above honesty of purse:
 
And turn aside without ostentation to aid the weak;
 
And treasure ideals more than raw ambition;
 
And track no man to his undeserved hurt;
 
And pursue no woman to her tears;
 
And love the beauty of noble music and mist-veiled mountains and blossoming valleys and great monuments-
 
If you live a long time and, keeping the faith in all these things hour by hour, still see that the sun gilds your path with real gold and that the moon floats in dream silver;
 
Then...
 
Remembering the purple shadows of the lawn, the majesty of the colonnades, and the dream of your youth, you may say in reverence and thankfulness:

"I have worn the honors of Honor, I graduated from Virginia"  -- James Hay Jr.