Silenus in Georgetown

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It is winter and cold and I am trying to remember summer through the aid of last year’s photographs, among which is this shot.

On fine summer days last year you could find this man sitting for hours on a sidewalk at the entrance to the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC. I do no know his story, only his commanding presence. His diagonal pose, his pendulous belly, and the cup he raises to receive gifts of sustenance, recall depictions of the mythological Silenus, companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus.

Except that, unlike the drunken Silenus, the man above knows he is in command.

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