Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
A January Sunday. The end of winter soooooo far away. Days still short; nights still long. A good day to float through an art museum, enter rooms of others' imaginations.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
I hied to the St. Louis Art Museum.
My eyes fell on Ben Nicholson's Half Moon and they rested there.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
Half Moon by Ben Nicholson, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri. January 2018.
It reminds me a bit of the Chicago Field Museum, which my mother and I visited some years ago during a burning-cold winter weekend, which you can read about here. The similarity of the two institutions is the catalog-like collection of living creatures, now dead, stuffed, and preserved for our observation. Not a bad thing, just a little disconcerting at times. Like being on a massive space ship, aimed for a new planetary home, taking with us a unique library of what was on Earth.
The WOW Wildlife Museum, like the Chicago Field Museum, also has exhibits depicting the clothing and arts of native peoples of North America. And paintings of historic America.
Chicago Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois. December 2009.
There are moments of awe in some of the WOW rooms, in which the awe is a consequence of an astonishing quantity of one thing. Like the room of mounted deer heads and the arch of antlers. Or the room of mountain sheep.
There's a gasp-inducing exhibit of a world-record sized polar bear.
WOW Wildlife Museum, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
When I walked through the Wildlife Museum, I'd already spent so much of my mental and sensory energy on the Aquarium that I couldn't give the Wildlife Museum its due.
There is a moment when you have to choose whether to remain silent or to stand up. If my rights are violated and I keep silent, I should better die than live. Islam is our religion. They tarnished the beautiful face of Islam. Today, in a very peaceful manner, we record our protest. People used to respect each other's beliefs. Whoever ruins Islam's holy name, for the sake of politics, it is required to stand in their way, and not let them go. If I keep silent, then you lose the right to exist.
The above quotes are from either Malala or her father.
I'm not one to do words of the year, annual vision boards, or the like. Nothing wrong with these things, they just aren't generally my bag.
However, this year is different. I need a word for this year, and that word is courage. A couple of definitions from Monsieur Google:
Strength in the face of pain or grief.
The ability to do something even when frightened.
I don't know how this is going to roll out on my blog, but for now I'm looking at doing something on this word on the first day of each month.
The inspiration of Malala came to me first, because I figure if a 15 year-old can show the courage she has, then maybe I can, too.
WOW Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
December 2017
My two sisters, one of their friends, and I visited the new Wonders of Wildlife (WOW) Museums, the aquarium and the Wildlife National Museum.
WOW Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
The visit ain't cheap. And, really, visiting both exhibits in one day is a challenge, especially for minors and for the most senior among us. Not just because it might be tiring, but because of the sensory overload, exacerbated by the hum and movement of the other visitors.
WOW Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
If I lived close by, then I'd just buy the ticket for one of the two exhibits and return another day for the second exhibit. If I'm staying overnight, then I'd forego the savings of buying both tickets together and buy the tickets separately so I can go to one exhibit the first day and the second exhibit the next day.
WOW Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
In this article, I'll focus on the Aquarium, and tomorrow, the Wildlife Museum.
WOW Aquarium, Springfield, Missouri. December 2017.
At first, I was pretty underwhelmed by the Aquarium. In the beginning, the traffic path isn't clear and I thought perhaps there were only two floors of the museum, one of which was consumed by award-winning fisherfolk. Which I didn't care about one whit. But one of my sisters noted there was a third floor, which I went to and that's when I began the long journey through the quite large Aquarium.
Three standouts for me:
Two jellyfish tanks
The darling, charming, personable sea snakes (who knew?!)
The flirting or fighting Caribbean spiny lobsters
I had fun putting music to the jellyfish videos I took here and here (with one embedded below).
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
All of these wavelets lapped around me at the Spanish Mass I attended at Ferguson's Our Lady of Guadalupe Church.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
Forefront in my mind was the St. Louis Public Radio story I'd read the day before about a parishioner, Jose Garcia. In November, the United States of America deported him to Mexico, yanking him from the arms of his wife, Ana, and his three little girls - Amanda, Julissa, and Dana.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
Who benefited from this action?
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
No one, other than a pyramid scheme of ICE operatives to whom a man is a commodity for meeting quotas and adding ticks to a quarterly report.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
A tiny little stat thrown into a virtual mass grave of thousands of other data blips, all denuded of their names, ties to families and communities -
their very humanity.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Ferguson, Missouri. December 2017.
Marks on a report that will be covered by a fresh sediment layer when government operatives dump new nameless, faceless expendables into the ditch.
"Home tour" at Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey. June 2012.
But my mother likes them, and I martyred myself for her by buying tickets to the Ferguson event.
But what was this?! At the very first house, I saw what I may have been missing all of my adult years: Vodka, wine, schnapps, and many sweets. And a repeat at the second house.
If this is the norm, no wonder such tours are so popular!
Disclosure: My mom is 88 years old, and schlepping into two houses maxed her limit, so we spent the next hour just driving around Ferguson neighborhoods and admiring the town's charming architecture and the yellow, green, and gold beauty of its mature trees.
In one of the neighborhoods, we stopped the car to watch a dancing blanket of sparrows swirling up and over and around a house and tree.
Bottomless Lakes State Park: Another New Mexican Surprise
Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
I didn't have high expectations for Bottomless Lakes State Park.
The photos on the New Mexico state parks page are a bit
shoulder-shrugging, but since visiting all of New Mexico's state parks
is one of my goals, I made my plans and went.
(A note to the state of New Mexico: I like your "find a state park page,"
but once you click through, the information for each of the state parks
is inadequate in presentation and content. There aren't even directions
to get to the parks. And wouldn't a link on each park page to your
parks events calendar be nice? And because New Mexico is so rich in
federal public lands, perhaps a link in that direction, as well?)
One of the coolest things about New Mexico's geography is that in one
spot, you can look out over the horizon and see an uninterrupted plain
of scrabbly flora and sandy soil. But take a few steps forward and a new
world opens at your feet.
Exhibit A, Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
And Exhibit B, just a few steps into the frame, so to speak:
Exhibit B, Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
Thanks to the very pleasant volunteer at the park's visitor center, I learned how deep are the sinkholes - or cenotes - that dot the park, and how salty the water.
Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
Visitors can swim in one of the sinkholes. At that lake are a couple of
pretty stone buildings and shade structures with picnic tables.
Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
On the day I visited, there was lots of activity at the swimming hole.
Just across the street from this large sinkhole was a quiet boardwalk trail (the Wetlands Trail)
with intermittent stick-built structures, I'm guessing birdwatching
blinds, but also the perfect cool, shady places to lug your folding
chair to and have a cool lunch, with only the sounds of birds, bubbling
water, and sweet breezes to keep you company. I had this pleasant
boardwalk trail entirely to myself.
On the surface, the wetlands soil is a mass of white or off-white
crystalline crusts, some flat against the surface; others clustered
around twigs, plants, or objects. If you push your finger into the
surface just a little bit, you'll bring up water.
Do you see the perfect little paw print below?
Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
I placed an earring close by for a size perspective.
Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico
It's funny how there's a thin, red layer of silt over the white gypsum at the park.
"[A friend told me:] 'Now, you know you don't know the Deep South. Go down there, stay with your group, and keep your mouth shut.' .... Well, I couldn't imagine that."
Source: 2014 interview with Mike Bush
St. Alphonsus Liguori "Rock" Catholic Church, St. Louis, Missouri. November 2017.
I didn't know who she was, but I soon learned she was famous.
2014 interview with Mike Bush, a KSDK news anchor below:
I take issue with the reporter's statement: "They weren't activists; they were nuns." So many nuns are and have been activists. I recall today the nuns slaughtered in El Salvador. I follow the Global Sisters Report for inspiration from activist sisters, and as a counter-weight against the dark side of Catholicism: its reactionary, anti-woman side.
Sister Antona Ebo's rosary. St. Alphonsus Liguori "Rock" Catholic Church, St. Louis, Missouri. November 2017.
"If we don't get involved when we know that
it's happening, and we know that injustice is happening, then we are
failing also."Sister Ebo in the 2014 KSDK interview
Sister Ebo had things to say about Ferguson, almost 50 years after her walk in Selma. From The Passionists:
Sister Ebo’s advocacy did not stop at Selma. Throughout her life she continued to advocate for social justice issues, particularly to end the injustice of racism, and even at age 90 she led a prayer vigil for peace [at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church] after the events in Ferguson. In an interview with the Missouri History Museum she said, “The one thing that I didn’t want to do was to become a sweet little old nun that was passing out holy cards and telling people, ‘I’ll pray for you.’”
St. Alphonsus Liguori "Rock" Catholic Church, St. Louis, Missouri. November 2017.
