A few hours ago, I was in a large conference room in the governor’s office watching Jay Inslee sign about 40 bills into law. It was one of those government rooms with an impossibly long boardroom table in the middle that felt like it could be where the governor calls an emergency cabinet meeting after an earthquake. Wood chairs upholstered with leather lined the walls. It was super legit. Until I saw what was on the walls.
Hanging in frames surrounding the entire room were amateur photos of Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and canyons in Eastern Washington. Who could be responsible for these amateur landscapes? Between swipes of Inslee’s bill-signing pen I walked over to the frames and looked at the credit. There, to my surprise, I saw our governor’s name.
Jay Inslee, our state’s basketball-coach-in-chief, the climate change presidential candidate, the guy who might take down Trump once and for all, is framing his own photos of wildflowers and putting them on the walls of government. Jaaaaay, that’s cute!!
One of Inslee’s aides struck up a conversation when she saw me looking at a photo of six blurry feathers and a distant Mount Rainier. “Oh, you’re admiring the governor’s photos. Have you seen his paintings yet? He’s surprisingly artistic.”
She was right, Inslee paints as well.
