"The Week That Was" is The Week That IS! Much has happened in the past week that will be with us for a long time. Last Sunday, the Ravens found defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Tuesday, January 20th, we witnessed the Inauguration of our 44th President and the dawn of a new era.

We also saw the passing of artist Andrew Wyeth, a painter of legend whose visual gifts conveyed rural Maine and the souls of ordinary people. I had a personal encounter during a summer in Maine in the 1970’s which forever influenced my own artistic endeavors. I was painting outdoors with a workshop group, completing a landscape of a small pond in Tenant’s Harbor. I had always been motivated by Wyeth’s moody landscapes; and in those early years when I first dared to dip a brush into watercolor, the dark hills of Maine prevailed in my palette. Later, I was drawn to brighter, more impressionistic applications of color. But on this day, a few yards from our group, an old 1940’s wood-sided station wagon driven by a beautiful woman (no, not Helga) pulled up. Out of the passenger side emerged Andrew Wyeth, who wandered over to our pond and stood behind me. In a low voice he spoke these words, “Young man, I like the way you made those rocks and the way the shadows meet the water.”

It was like the voice of God, and I floated along on “Cloud 9” for some time after.

The Ravens: No Super Bowl ... but a Player who Survives

Despite a close encounter with the helmet of Pittsburgh’s safety Ryan Clark in the fourth quarter, Ravens running back Willis McGahee emerged from a Pittsburgh hospital the next day with the message, "I'm OK". He suffered a concussion and a neck injury, but is expected to fully recover with the hope of getting a continuing Ravens contract signed by Ray Lewis - and maybe a Super Bowl in 2010!

A New President, A New Era

This January 20th swearing in of Barack Obama as our 44th President was 48 years to the day after the same oath was administered to John F. Kennedy in 1961. My first memory of that day was of lugging a heavy black & white television from Suzanne's and my first home, a small apartment in Norfolk, Virginia where my navy ship was docked between two Middle East trips. The TV's destination was two blocks away to the JEB Stuart Elementary School's 2nd grade classroom where Suzanne taught. We both felt that JFK's inaugural would be exciting for the children to watch. Later, in the crowded USS Aldebaran wardroom, all our ship's officers were deeply moved by Kennedy’s famous speech, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". As those words were spoken, a soon-to-retire World War II warrant officer commented: "You young guys, it's your show, now! "

January 20th, 2009 marks historic change for our country. Despite the oft-spoken "First African American in the White House”, there have been many more observations crossing daily papers and the internet. One that strikes me deeply was a commentary by respected Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius: "Obama's advisors say he makes decisions more confidently than anyone they have ever watched in politics. He's fashioning a new style of governing, as if by instinct, by rebuilding a center. He's heading into the loneliest, most difficult terrain on earth and he's still making it look easy..... but it won't be."

One positive indicator of President Obama's good instincts is the appointment of former Senator George Mitchell as special emissary to facilitate a peace settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian attacks in Gaza. George Mitchell and the Afganistan-Pakistan special envoy Hal Holbrooke are proof, as are the economic stimulus steps, of the new President's need for optimism amidst reality.

More to come as we look ahead to the business and public policy arena in the nation's Capitol and the historic State House in Annapolis when politics and policy begin to compete in the days ahead.  7:48 PM •