Joyfully Green: museums

I've lost count of how many times I've visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but I can tell you this: It never gets old for me.

There's something equally comforting and eerily magical about visiting the Hall of African Mammals and seeing the wise, old face of the lion--again. He's my favorite animal in the whole museum (with a respectful nod to the 94-foot-long, 21,000-pound Blue Whale that somehow hovers weightlessly above us).

The museum itself is a study in opposites. It alternates between darkness and golden light. (If I had to pick one color for it, I'd pick cinnamon.) It's crowded--always!--but as you study the tiniest details of the exquisite dioramas, a part of you fades into them and it feels like you're the only person in the world.

I visited the museum this past Saturday with my children--not for the first time. I think I've lost count of their visits as well. As they dashed from one diorama to another, they were mesmerized, balanced in a place of peacefulness and wonder. I felt it, too. It's a warm feeling that washes over me every time I walk through the doors.

I hope the week ahead is full of peaceful wonder for you.

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Joyful gift ideas...

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For my "Week in 5 Photos" posts, I usually try to spread out the photos over a few days, but I recently spent one fascinating day at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, and I wanted to share it with you here. No, it's not a museum dedicated to Mr. Springsteen. It's one of my favorite types of museums--a well-curated collection of nature, art, science, history, anthropology, and random oddities. Another bonus: It's not so large that you become one of those "Museum Zombies" shuffling along endless corridors!

We were drawn to the Bruce Museum for their Roz Chast exhibit, titled "Being, Nothingness, and Much, Much More" (open through October 19, 2014), a collection beyond what's been famously featured in The New Yorker. We had a lot of laughs looking around the exhibit, but my favorite cartoon was How Grandma Sees the Remote, which included buttons ranging from "Utter Mystery" to "Cause Nationwide Blackout." (I just finished reading Chast's new book, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? It's about the last years of her parents' lives--I laughed, I cried, I nodded in recognition. It must be the ultimate form of therapy to be able to draw--in intricate detail--the most painful scenes of your life and find the glimmers of humor in them. Roz Chast is an absolute master at it.)

Here's what else we saw at the museum...

I always have mixed feelings about real animals that have been stuffed for museum displays, but on the good side of the mix, I'll grant that they do help us learn more about the animals, simply by observing them much closer than we could in the wild.

This fox above, with her paws crossed oh-so-daintily, seemed to be saying, "Well, I do declare...!" (Channeling Scarlett O'Hara.)

I loved the look of this vintage typewriter, especially with its caption, billing it as a lightweight travel typewriter for outdoor use, "to be enrolled as an assistant in nearness to nature." (The precursor to the iPad Mini!)

Other than the Roz Chast exhibit, my favorite was "Extreme Habitats: Into the Deep Sea" (open through November 9, 2014). I'd seen a "Nova"-style documentary on ocean life a while back and was completely awestruck by the many deep-sea creatures that never see light, so they create their own light with their bodies to protect themselves and to capture prey--it's called bioluminescence. (So cool!) Unfortunately, it was too dark to shoot anything at that exhibit, so I took a picture of the cute little hermit crabs scrambling along in the touch-tank for kids (photo at the top).

On our way out, my son was mesmerized by the warrior statues. So much to see, for every age. We'll be back!

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Your turn: What's the best museum you've ever visited? Any local favorites? Let's hear it in the comments section below--I'm all ears!

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This post contains an affiliate link to Amazon.com, which means that if you decide to buy the book, I'll get some spare change, at no extra cost to you. But by all means, check your local library!