The difference between being a grandmother and being a mother can be likened to the difference between having a chauffer driven ride in the country and being driven by your teenager, who has a learner's permit, somewhere in rush hour traffic. As a grandma you can sit back and enjoy the ride and the accompanying scenery. As a mother you feel compelled to instruct and correct while putting your foot firmly on the non-existent passenger's side brake. You don't dare enjoy too much of the scenery because you are focused on making sure both you and your child behind the wheel arrive alive.
I love being a mother. It is scary and painful and amazing and joyful---just like childbirth---a precursor of things to come...I must admit being a grandma is a lot of fun and something I can truly sit back and enjoy. Although I do stress a little about being a really good grandmother. I want my grandkids to have fond memories of me and I hope I can teach them a good lesson or two. (Although lessons taught by grandparents are often more subtle) One of the great things about being a grandparent is it gives you a second chance of sorts. If your children don't have as many good memories of you as their parent as you would hope then at least maybe they can catch a better glimpse of you through the eyes of their children.
Yesterday I got to go to a natural history museum (Two museum trips in one week--this was indeed a good week) and to an old-fashioned drugstore with my oldest daughter and her children, my granddaughter and grandson. It was delightful. My granddaughter enjoyed looking at the taxidermied birds and their eggs, the rocks, the butterfly and moth collections, and the old bottle collection. My grandson would have had much more fun (And gotten into a lot of trouble) if he would have been out of his stroller and allowed to crawl around and explore. He did get out of his stoller for a few minutes and delighted in playing a Native American drum while he bounced to the beat.
It is interesting to see what captures the attention of children. My granddaughter really liked looking at the aquarium. She has one in her home but this one had a 'Nemo' fish. In the Native American Art room she wasn't as much interested in the baskets and headdresses as she was in playing with some pottery pieces that were in a 'hands on' display. She grouped the pottery pieces into family units (Children naturally do this---even at tender ages children recognize the family as a fundamentally vital element of a healthy society)
As adults we always seem to have a clock ticking in our heads even when we are engaged in leisure activities. We look at something in a museum and then we move on expecting our children to do the same but children aren't as aware of time so they move on when they are ready--when they are done--or when something else catches their eye---they don't feel a need to keep moving for the sake of moving on. (However sometimes my children, especially as they grew older, would tug at me because I would be taking too long looking at something when they wanted to move on) My granddaughter did let us know when she was done. (Children do have timers--they rarely work in concert with their parent's timers) After seeing what she wanted to see she said, "Nana can I get out of the museum now?" She happily left with a bag of polished rocks and some candy rocks. Do you ever notice how as parents we vigilantly tell our children what not to put in their mouths but then we buy them edible versions of non-edibles and enthusiastically encourage them to partake? No wonder my granddaughter looked at the rocks a little apprehensively. (After lunch there was a hint of the same look when I offered her a cupcake with dirt--crushed oreos--and a worm--gummy--on top)
At the drugstore my granddaughter really took a liking to an old-fashioned spinning top. The kind with a handle that you push on. She liked it so much that when my inner timer said it was time to look at something else and I tried to put it away she grabbed it and insisted on playing with it a little longer. She also enjoyed rearranging the window display. She moved two porcelain birds into a nest with eggs. That did seem to be an appropriate arrangement. She found relief in a comfy chair for sale after she had been told to not touch something. She sucked her thumb and got a little upset when I tried to share the chair with her. She directed me to a nearby rocking chair. She was tired and hungry. We made our way to the exit and her mom stopped to buy some sticker books for her. While her mom paid for the purchase my granddaughter rearranged some farm animal groups---I think she was matching up mothers and their babies. My grandson was very good considering he just had to look at a lot of tantalizing things just barely out of his reach.
After the drugstore we came back home to Nana's house for lunch. My grandson feasted on pieces of bread, string cheese, blueberries, and baby food. He thouroughly enjoys eating. My granddaughter nibbled on a bologna sandwich, a few berries, and pretzels. My daughter and I enjoyed chatting about everything from world affairs to good books and recipes. Simple pleasures...
I love playing with my grandkids. I love chasing them and making them giggle. I love exploring with them. I have tried to make my extra bedroom into a fun playroom with several toys and books to engage young hands and minds. While my daughter was getting her very tired and fussy baby boy ready for the car ride home, I went to get my granddaughter and found her in the playroom not playing with the toys or books but playing a game of her own invention of dropping chalk through a cardboard wrapping paper tube into a bowl. I was privileged to be invited to join in the game. You know--it was fun. Simple activities become grand events and grand events become even more grand than we can imagine when experienced with the simple wonder and unadulterated enthusiasm of a child.
My world is so much brighter when my grandson smiles at me or when his big sister returns my hugs. My granddaughter rearranged my sofa table decor, moving a lone bird closer to its two 'baby bird's, on her way out. When the door shut after several goodbyes I was tired but renewed and I thought about how much I cherish my family---what they say---what they do---their facial expressions and laughter---what they do to my heart. I am glad that Heavenly Father put us into families. It feels like the right arrangement.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Conversing With Artists
On Monday I went with a good friend on a lovely adventure to the BYU Museum of Art and the BYU Bookstore. Art Museums (Most any kind of museum) and bookstores---pieces of heaven on earth for me. I find both art museums and bookstores soothing and stimulating at the same time. Let me try and explain...
I love art museums because the works you find in them try to answer questions and end up asking even more. Artists try to give voice to what they see through their eyes. I think it is interesting that every art form is a cooperation of our spirits and elements of earth. Painters paint what they see in their mind's eye with paints taken from the earth. Sculptors sculpt with earth itself. Dancers (I think dancing is a pure and exciting form of art because in dancing our spirits really can move our bodies) create movement executed on the ground beneath their feet. For me, art is very spirtual because of this bringing together the physical and the spiritual to create something exhilartingly thought provoking.
My husband says he thinks we all helped create the Earth and everything in it. I like that idea. It would explain why some people feel connected to the mountains or others to the ocean or why some people like trees and others feel drawn to animals. Maybe we can really stretch things here and think that we not only helped create landscapes and creatures but sounds---like maybe someone musical created the sound of water trickling over rocks...It could be lots of fun to look at people you know and imagine what on the earth they would have helped create or form. I believe each of us is creative because we are children of the Creator--Heavenly Father--our Father. Some of us feel a greater need to create than others but we all feel it. It is part of us. Every now and then I hear someone say that they are not at all creative. That is not a true statement. Some people might not paint or sculpt or dance but they create beautiful or peaceful environments. Others create order out of disorder. There are many ways to create and in which to be creative. Art museums soothe my soul in speaking to my spirit in a language that I seem to remember and they stimulate me by awakening an awareness in my spirit brain and a desire in my spirit heart. I also like them because of the nice little signs that accompany each piece and give a brief background or explanation. Sometimes I wish more things in life and events in life had those nice little summations but that would probably make things too easy and inhibit my ability to form my own perceptions and understanding. Does that make sense?
The special exhibit we enjoyed was called Mirror Mirror:Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self. (How could I not be curious about a title like that?) The exhibit showed the influence of technological media on the traditional art form of portraiture---in other words they were trying to visually represent the true self incorporating various kinds of modern media.One of my favorite pieces in the special exhibit was in a room where projected on three walls was video of people coming and going at a busy intersection in New York City. I am an avid people watcher so I found it fascinating and satisfying to sit and watch the people without the worry of being caught. With the larger than life projections and the background sounds you felt as if you were there. Suddenly faces in the crowd became more than that. Some of the faces wore such emotion. The faces drew you in like covers of books and you found yourself wanting to know the stories that went with the faces. My friend and I sat there and watched for several minutes. While we sat there she told me of an harrowing experience she had getting lost in New York City. Her story was made even more real by the pictures of people coming and going. (I wonder if there was a hidden camera filming our reactions to the people being filmed? Hmmm...)
Another favorite piece was a large tree sculpture that was covered in a black velvet fabric and had clear glass or plastic birds perched on the branches. The birds were filled with Windex. Fascinating... Another piece was a video of two people dancing. The artist had posted an ad for people to be in a dance video. Two people who showed up were very different--so different that they were chosen to be in the video. One was a tall, thin young man and one was a shorter kind of plump middle-aged woman. They danced together. Sometimes they looked almost absurd but they danced together in spite of their obvious differences on several levels. It was stirring in an odd sort of way. There were several pieces by one artist that I was looking at number 3 of 4 before I realized that they were paintings and not photographs! So much fun...I could go on and on...wait, I already have.
After the museum we fed our bodies which were lagging behind our full and invigorated minds at the time and then we headed to the bookstore. My favorite bookstore is Sam Weller's in Salt Lake City because it has creaking floors and smells of old books and there is a basement with wonderful used books that have things written inside like 'Merry Christmas Bob' or something that makes you a feel like a part of the previous book owner's life. But...BYU Bookstore is fun because they have all kinds of church books, a real candy department, and a children's book section that I could wander in for quite some time... Bookstores invite me in and make me want to make myself at home. They also excite me because I can take a book in my hands and for a moment have an out of body experience in traveling to a different time period or a different country, or a different time of life.
We finished our adventure by taking a drive down memory lane for my friend who graduated from BYU and lived near campus while attending. I really enjoy driving people down memory lane...a Memory Lane Chauffer would be a good job to apply for----
I think I made it perfectly clear how much I enjoyed this outing. I enjoyed it so much that this week seemed to not start with a Monday. Just yesterday while I was scrubbing my floor I saw a work of art outside of my kitchen window. It was a landscape of a tree made soft with baby leaves silouhetted against billowy white clouds gathering to cover a patch of blue sky. The perspective was one of looking upward. What works of art have you seen lately?
I love art museums because the works you find in them try to answer questions and end up asking even more. Artists try to give voice to what they see through their eyes. I think it is interesting that every art form is a cooperation of our spirits and elements of earth. Painters paint what they see in their mind's eye with paints taken from the earth. Sculptors sculpt with earth itself. Dancers (I think dancing is a pure and exciting form of art because in dancing our spirits really can move our bodies) create movement executed on the ground beneath their feet. For me, art is very spirtual because of this bringing together the physical and the spiritual to create something exhilartingly thought provoking.
My husband says he thinks we all helped create the Earth and everything in it. I like that idea. It would explain why some people feel connected to the mountains or others to the ocean or why some people like trees and others feel drawn to animals. Maybe we can really stretch things here and think that we not only helped create landscapes and creatures but sounds---like maybe someone musical created the sound of water trickling over rocks...It could be lots of fun to look at people you know and imagine what on the earth they would have helped create or form. I believe each of us is creative because we are children of the Creator--Heavenly Father--our Father. Some of us feel a greater need to create than others but we all feel it. It is part of us. Every now and then I hear someone say that they are not at all creative. That is not a true statement. Some people might not paint or sculpt or dance but they create beautiful or peaceful environments. Others create order out of disorder. There are many ways to create and in which to be creative. Art museums soothe my soul in speaking to my spirit in a language that I seem to remember and they stimulate me by awakening an awareness in my spirit brain and a desire in my spirit heart. I also like them because of the nice little signs that accompany each piece and give a brief background or explanation. Sometimes I wish more things in life and events in life had those nice little summations but that would probably make things too easy and inhibit my ability to form my own perceptions and understanding. Does that make sense?
The special exhibit we enjoyed was called Mirror Mirror:Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self. (How could I not be curious about a title like that?) The exhibit showed the influence of technological media on the traditional art form of portraiture---in other words they were trying to visually represent the true self incorporating various kinds of modern media.One of my favorite pieces in the special exhibit was in a room where projected on three walls was video of people coming and going at a busy intersection in New York City. I am an avid people watcher so I found it fascinating and satisfying to sit and watch the people without the worry of being caught. With the larger than life projections and the background sounds you felt as if you were there. Suddenly faces in the crowd became more than that. Some of the faces wore such emotion. The faces drew you in like covers of books and you found yourself wanting to know the stories that went with the faces. My friend and I sat there and watched for several minutes. While we sat there she told me of an harrowing experience she had getting lost in New York City. Her story was made even more real by the pictures of people coming and going. (I wonder if there was a hidden camera filming our reactions to the people being filmed? Hmmm...)
Another favorite piece was a large tree sculpture that was covered in a black velvet fabric and had clear glass or plastic birds perched on the branches. The birds were filled with Windex. Fascinating... Another piece was a video of two people dancing. The artist had posted an ad for people to be in a dance video. Two people who showed up were very different--so different that they were chosen to be in the video. One was a tall, thin young man and one was a shorter kind of plump middle-aged woman. They danced together. Sometimes they looked almost absurd but they danced together in spite of their obvious differences on several levels. It was stirring in an odd sort of way. There were several pieces by one artist that I was looking at number 3 of 4 before I realized that they were paintings and not photographs! So much fun...I could go on and on...wait, I already have.
After the museum we fed our bodies which were lagging behind our full and invigorated minds at the time and then we headed to the bookstore. My favorite bookstore is Sam Weller's in Salt Lake City because it has creaking floors and smells of old books and there is a basement with wonderful used books that have things written inside like 'Merry Christmas Bob' or something that makes you a feel like a part of the previous book owner's life. But...BYU Bookstore is fun because they have all kinds of church books, a real candy department, and a children's book section that I could wander in for quite some time... Bookstores invite me in and make me want to make myself at home. They also excite me because I can take a book in my hands and for a moment have an out of body experience in traveling to a different time period or a different country, or a different time of life.
We finished our adventure by taking a drive down memory lane for my friend who graduated from BYU and lived near campus while attending. I really enjoy driving people down memory lane...a Memory Lane Chauffer would be a good job to apply for----
I think I made it perfectly clear how much I enjoyed this outing. I enjoyed it so much that this week seemed to not start with a Monday. Just yesterday while I was scrubbing my floor I saw a work of art outside of my kitchen window. It was a landscape of a tree made soft with baby leaves silouhetted against billowy white clouds gathering to cover a patch of blue sky. The perspective was one of looking upward. What works of art have you seen lately?
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