We all dressed up for the inaugural ball.

Bob Bonner decorated the clocks in red, white and blue for the All Souls Inaugural Ball.  Though no-one could see us up there during the ball, we all had a ball.  Many people who looked up at the clock noticed the spiffy patriotic banners put there by our loving caretaker.  We could hear all the comments carried up to us by the cool breeze blowing our way that night.  

"Oh, look!  The All Souls clocks are decorated for the occasion.  Do you think that shows they are partisan and are pushing the Obama agenda?

"No way," the man responded.  "They are showing their patriotism and support for the newly reelected president."

The Little Man represents time's march forward in space.

He has been sitting there 24/7 day after day, year after  year, decade after decade, and almost century after century, doing the same job, keeping the clock working and time moving forward.

 "No problem," he says.  "It's an easy  job but not without stress.  You might be able to rest for short periods but you can never sleep."  Today he wanted to talk about his job.  " Sometimes you worry the clock might stop and it's your fault.  Well, it's not really your fault because it's ALWAYS mechanical failure, but I'm part of the mechanics, so that's why I worry," he informed.

 

     "We all have this feeling All for One and One for All, and our main purpose is to keep time moving forward.  After that, no matter what we see or how we see it on any particular day, time will keep moving forward."

Sometimes they just like to cut loose!

                     



As #1 and #2 stood contemplating their neighborhoods while suspended upside down, the other two fellows decided to have some fun.  They imagined how they'd look after the church got renovated.

Each One has a diversity of personalities and personae

It all goes back to their experiences and what they've seen.  Each one sees things differently and sees different things.  Even though they're always together on the same mission, that is to keep the clock moving forward, their internal feelings and external outlooks are different from each other.     For instance,

            

The two guys here are in the same position, namely upside down.  They are facing two different communities but looking at them in the same way, namely upside down.  The man on the left is looking towards Adams Morgan, and he sees a struggling daytime business district sitting on the sky.  That sometimes depresses him and sometimes makes him happy.  The one on the right is looking towards Columbia Heights.  There, he sees a bustling daytime business district, but he misses La Casa Shelter on Irving Street.  The shelter was torn down to make way for expensive condos.  He wonders why that could happen as he sits atop All Souls Church, that has been struggling in its communities for decades to secure housing and shelter for people in the community.

Let's call Adams Morgan's man, who faces west,  #1; and Columbia Heights' man facing east will be called #2.   Got a better idea?

Full disclosure, there are really four little men in the clock . . .

 I went up to visit the little man on Sunday to take more photos and check out his position on a few issues.  This visit, he was 4 distinct individuals, and each one had a different position.  

Introducing the little man in the clock at All Souls Church

Today he is in the rainbow clock and wants to be known as "Rainbow Man".  He's feeling his connection to the Rainbow Nation.  The Rainbow Nation is where he was born, a long time ago when the church was built, sometime in the 1920s.  He's a Native Washingtonian, first generation clock man.  The rainbow nation is a mentality, a liberating way of thinking, where freedom and justice ring out with a crazy sense of happiness. 


The little man sits on the clock's intricate workings, 80 steps up into the church's steeple.  He looks out the four faces of the clock,  each looking onto a different neighborhood:  Mt. Pleasant on the north, Adams Morgan on the west, Columbia Heights on the east,  and 16th Street/U Streets on the south.

The Little Man in the All Souls Clock sees quite a bit of what happens on the streets below.  Through the years, he's built up quite a repertoire of stories.  In fact, just this Monday he saw Obama speeding up 16th Street to go to church for MLK Day.  They had to block off all the traffic from all the entryways onto and near 16th and Harvard Streets.  "It was eerily quiet," the Little Man said.  "Then the sirens blew that away."

Have you ever seen the little man in the clock?