WASHINGTON, D.C.—John and Maria Stanwich saw Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center on Feb. 22 and were deeply impressed by the beauty of what the artists created.
“It really just inspires you,” said Mr. Stanwich, superintendent at the National Park Service Liaison. “And when you see that talent of people who learned this and they’re continuing it, and again, we saw it years ago, but we came back because it really is just, it’s just such an amazing—it really is just inspirational.”
“Oh, the costumes are beautiful, the colors, and I love the history,” said Mrs. Stanwich, retired from the National Archives and Records Administration.
“I think it’s really important for us to remember the past,” Mr. Stanwich said, adding that it’s something that comes with his own job, in helping people better understand what came before and why it matters. “So that’s really important, I feel, as to understand the traditions that came before us, how that made our society.”
Mrs. Stanwich said the “past is the prologue,” and knowing history is needed “in order to go forward.”
“It still inspires us today to, you know, to understand things that are greater than ourselves,” he said. “The scenery there, the mountains, the waters, all of those things, they inspire us, it’s bigger than us. And so that spirit is really important to understanding cultures.”
