When I was a graduate student doing my PhD coursework at Northeastern University, I often took advantage of the fact that the Museum of Fine Arts was right across the street from campus. In those days, my student ID got me into the Museum for free, so on days when I didn’t have much to do between classes, I’d go to the MFA to stroll the galleries. Because I went to the MFA so often, I came to see it not merely as a storage vault for fine art but as an indoor pedestrian path: a kind of secular cloister-walk where I could walk even when the weather was bad.
I still like to go walking at the MFA, although I do so far less frequently now. When I go to the MFA with a friend, I look at art as you are supposed to, considering each of the works in a given gallery, dutifully reading the placards that identify and explicate each item, and otherwise absorbing the educational intent of the museum space. But when I go to the MFA by myself, as I did on Tuesday, I typically go there simply to walk, not focusing in particular on any piece of art or any given gallery. Instead, I occasionally go alone to the MFA because it is a space dedicated to looking and thus a space that is amenable to strolling. Where else (except, perhaps, at a mall) is it okay to walk around with no other purpose than just looking?
Tuesday just happened to be my 40th birthday, and Tuesday’s trip to the MFA to go walking was my understated gift to myself. Over the New Year, I made a list of 40 things I’m grateful for as I turn 40, and it was an illuminating endeavor. Although some material possessions made it to my personal Top 40 list–my car, for instance, which I paid off in 2008; my camera, which continues to work even though I’ve recently water-logged and then dropped it; and my audio player, which I use to listen to books for free–most of the items on my list are intangibles. I’m grateful that my apartment in Keene is within walking distance of my job, and I’m grateful that J’s house in Newton is within walking distance of the T. I’m grateful to be blessed with friends, family, and a menagerie of pets, both my own and J’s. I’m grateful for my good health, my meditation practice, and my blog and the people who read it. And in tough economic times, I’m grateful that I have food to eat, shelter over my head, and clothes on my back: more than enough.
Museums are a great place to go when you want to rejoice in simple abundance. Both greed and gluttony are deadly sins, but there’s no shame in relishing beauties we all can share. Why do I need to own a storage vault of beautiful belongings when museums house so many lovely things we can collectively enjoy? The fact that I don’t go walking at the MFA more often–the fact that this space and its contents are an easy T-ride away, but I only occasionally take the time to visit them–is an embarrassment of riches. Museums and the beauties they contain are simply there for the looking, as is the natural world with its ample riches. Given these gifts, which are already within my easy reach, why would I dream or desire to reach for more?
It’s not that I undervalue possessions; instead, I’ve come to realize I overvalue experience. I am deeply grateful for the things I own; nobody but the deeply deranged would rejoice to have their material goods destroyed by fire or rain. But this being said, there isn’t much I want other than more time to enjoy the things I already have. More than tangible things, what I want is my own life and the health to enjoy it. This past December, J and I agreed not to exchange gifts for Christmas or our birthdays; instead, we split the costs of board-walking in Ocean City, agreed to buy one another soccer tickets for Valentine’s Day, and have begun to brainstorm our next unorthodox adventure. Gift-wrapped surprises are fine and good, but J and I have come to realize that what we most deeply enjoy from one another is time and experiences shared.
And so on Tuesday, my fortieth birthday, I went walking at the Museum of Fine Arts, where I bought myself a membership so I can enjoy an entire year’s worth of gallery rambles. In the gift shop, I bought myself a bracelet and a pair of earrings: only the deeply deranged would deny herself some small, precious thing to mark a momentous milestone. And now, having come home and sorted through the photos I took while walking–free souvenirs captured by my still-functioning camera–I chose forty from my fortieth to share with you: a kind of virtual cake sliced and shared across cyberspace, there being no need for the further illumination of birthday candles lit and extinguished.
There are several reflective self-portraits in my images from the MFA, it having been a long time since I posted many of those.
Jan 8, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Happy Birthday! Congratulations on the big 4 – 0 and for filling it with style and grace. I’m glad you enjoyed your walk in the Museum (and the membership) . . . as well as the jewelry. I’m with you on the best gifts being experiential, too! Again, Happy Birthday. Thanks for the beauty of your words and photos on this blog.
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Jan 9, 2009 at 12:25 am
There’s only one way for me to view 4-0 these days and it isn’t big anymore. Cheers!
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Jan 9, 2009 at 1:13 am
Happy Belated Birfday!
You wrote:
“When I go to the MFA with a friend, I look at art as you are supposed to, considering each of the works in a given gallery, dutifully reading the placards that identify and explicate each item, and otherwise absorbing the educational intent of the museum space.”
I suppose it’s true: what the art museum is depends on how we move through it. The art museum is one thing when you walk through it thoughtfully with a friend; it’s quite another thing when you crash through it on your well-armed Batcycle in pursuit of the Joker.
As the Irish would say: “Happy Faaartieth, lassie!”
Kevin
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Jan 9, 2009 at 2:54 am
“Museums are a great place to go when you want to rejoice in simple abundance.”
A beautiful thought.
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Jan 9, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Happy Birthday!!
From your fellow BC alum and Thoreauvian:)
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Jan 9, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Happy 40th birthday! (I recently had 50th).
You are so lucky to have such a lovely museum near you. Enjoy it often!
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Jan 9, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Happy 40th! And thank you for sharing your birthday gift. I read your blog fairly faithfully, but haven’t let you know how much I appreciate it. I find it interesting, inspiring, and thought-provoking. Thank you for that, too!
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Jan 9, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Lots of food for thought. Birthdays are one topic, and museums another. Birthdays are more complex. Museums are easy. I always prefer to go without friends, husbands, children, etc. When you are alone you can do exactly what you want (with the exception of touching stuff — because the guards are always watching you). But you don’t have to worry about what the other person or people want to look at, whether they need the toilet, whether their feet hurt, and so on. Birthdays always dictate difficult emotional interactions. Did I forget a birthday I should have remembered? Was I neglected on my birthday? But I hope yours was a happy one and that nobody neglected it. It is always wise to buy oneself a present, and you have learned that at a young (40) age.
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Jan 11, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Thanks for the good wishes! I’m grateful to have lots of “virtual friends” with whom I can share these thoughts & images.
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Jan 11, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Looks like a lovely time, a wonderful way to mark the start of a new season of your life… and you made off with quite a treasure load of photos! Hope to get out to celebrate your birthday in somewhat more riotous fashion, though hopefully just as artfully, soon. Happy 40!
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Jan 29, 2010 at 6:20 pm
[…] year when I celebrated the Big 4-0, I wasn’t sure how middle age would suit me. “Middle age,” in fact, sounded like a term I […]
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Jan 29, 2010 at 6:30 pm
[…] year when I celebrated the Big 4-0, I wasn’t sure how middle age would suit me. “Middle age,” in fact, sounded like a term I […]
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