I'm liking this new background; it doesn't make me feel nearly uneasy as the dots. Bloggy likes it too.So, Podly and Chenko convinced me to go to Denver this weekend to check in on Barrister Joe and the fam. What good fun came of it despite the 100 degree weather. (Post Tian life is great when it comes to the summer: since Taiwan, I have no sensitivity to heat. The other day I met this cute lady at the MTC- we were pretending to be investigators- sisters, to be exact, even though we are forty years apart. Anyway, we got talking about Taiwan and she mentioned, "Well, Ping Dong has two suns, you know." [It sounded really poetic in Mandarin.] Now, I have gone overboard because not only have I written more inside the parentheses than outside, but I am putting brackets within brackets. AHHHH!!!!!}}]]]]))
Back to the trip to Denver. We drove. It was long and gas station treats are lose their excitement after three hours.
Fortunately, this wasn't one of those typical Tian-Family trips with the old Isuzu Trooper. Due to the number of children in the clan, I often sat in the back with all the bags, facing opposite the direction of driving, thus, providing easy humor for the car behind us. To this day, I have this weird syndrome about giving up shot-gun to those who are older than me. I used to think it was part of the constitution of the United States.
Nice Person: Tian, you can have shot-gun.
Tian: Oh, no, you are older.
Nice Person: What does that have to do with anything?
Tian: It's the law.
Nice Person: (quizzical expression) What law?
Tian: I'm not sure, but I would feel better sitting in the back with the luggage, please.
There are other things I associate with driving too, besides the constitution. One of those is the San Rafel Swell. If you don't know what that is, then you were a blessed, blessed child and you probably took normal vacations like going to Disney Land. The Swell is the scenic route home from any Southern Beehive State location to our home.
I don't mean to belittle anthropology, archaeology, early civilizations, or historical monuments of any sort; but, in my book, once you've seen one petroglyph you've seen them all. And they don't evolve, by any means. Petroglyphs don't change over time; I know, because I'm smart like that.
So, whenever Pamlamadingdong gets that must-see-PETROGLPHYS-look in her eye, I like to remind her that Petroglphys are a lot like a Norton Anthology of early British Literature: they don't update through time. It's not like you can get a better edition.
2 comments:
The sad thing is, this can be a problem with even things you love (or just things you appreciate as being important to the human record) I think that the saturation due to high quantities of important stuff can bring on a certain lethargy and dullness in your eye, for example: if I'm in a large museum filled with Buddhas or Louis XVI snuff boxes, and I'm trying to respect everyting, inevitably I get what mother calls "The D.I. Sickness" and suddenly I'm breezing by hundreds of years worth of permanent-collection important-ness. "Hmmm, this room's filled with a bunch of Greek pottery, neat." or "Oh, another Van Gogh." And what I'm really thinking is, "I wonder if there's a chocolatier in this part of town?" Even lovely and important things have to be taken in moderation, otherwise, I actually start resenting them in weird way: "MUST there be quite so many Ming vases?!? I can't appreciate them all! Don't they know I ONLY have an hour?!"
I wonder if it would be better if Ming vases were displayed on the side of a rock in the middle of nowhere and petroglyph were hung on museum walls.
I do think the museum institution needs to rethink the way it creates a viewer's experience. Maybe we should revert back to the 19th century salons - paintings helter-skelter with no rhyme or reason from floor to ceiling.
And by the way, trips to Disneyland do not constitute a 'normal' family vacation...I can vouch for that.
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