This morning, my housemate Ildi and Orsi -- one of her daughters -- came with me to experience the first of the monthly "Family Days" at the Asian Art Museum. As a member of the museum, I'm able to take some people with me for free -- in fact, I've been wanting to issue a more general invitation to friends to join me. Each time, I think that I want to go off on my own so that I see new things. Each time, I also want to hang out with my friends.
Today, I got to do a bit of both. In three previous trips, I never seem to get past the first of two floors on the tour. Today, I started in the Chinese galleries (at the end of the first floors of exhibits) and also checked out the resource center. I have been reading Art in China (Oxford History of Art) to help me better understand what I see. (It was gratifying that one of the videos I watched hit directly upon the issue of bronze work in non-Shang dominated China, an issue addressed in the book.) One of the real finds of my trip today was the "Educators' Guide to the Asian Art Museum" -- a booklet that is helpful to any student of Asian Art, and not just those who are trying to teach others about the subject.
Tonight, I got the special treat of seeing my friend Deborah for the first time in about a year. She just got back from China -- and it was great to see her. My housemates know her too and the kids in the house were especially excited to be with her. I'm thankful for email and the phone, which have helped us to stay in touch -- but there's nothing -- nothing at all -- like real life presence, is there? Tonight, she introduced me to the Red Sea Ethiopian restaurant in Oakland -- where there was tasty and filling food to be had. After talking for hours, we got the signal to leave the restaurant (the lights were being turned off -- hint, hint). I told her about my blog -- let me know, Deborah, if you read this item!
It's time to go to bed now for me. I'm finding it hard to imagine why my readers might care concerning what I just wrote. More precisely, I'm used to thinking that my readers might care about what I thought -- but maybe less so about what I did. Nevertheless, I felt the need to write something about the matters the mean most to me. In the byline of the blog, I mentioned friendship. I wanted to remember this day as one dedicated to spending time with my wonderful friends. That's it. Nothing grander or more abstract to say than that. (Perhaps this last paragraph is itself extraneous.)