Emanuel.s wrote, "A few days ago I've visited The Louvre for the first time
in my life. After 6 hours of visit and only about 20% of the whole museum
seen, I was fisicaly and psicologicaly exausted."

I remember my first visit. As I got off the bus a man I had been talking
with said, "that building is older than your country" and he grinned. (I am
an American.) That started my humbling experience. You rekindle The Lourve
as I remember it. It is a remarkable treasure. I remembered a story I was
told about Winston Churchill's visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
He had an hour in a very busy schedule. The Museum staff spent a lot of
time trying to figure out how to "show" him the MFA in that time. Someone
on the staff suggested they ask what he would like to see. He chose to
spend all his time in one room - a recreation of a Buddhist Temple. (I
believe it is no longer on display.) I spent about an hour walking rapidly
through The Lourve. Then I went back and spend the balance of the day and
part of the next in a couple of galleries that had caught my eye as I blew
through them on my scouting expedition.

I don't get the same reading from Emanual's statement, "I left hating this
place" as I believe others did. I had worked on NASA's Apollo Space
program, my cousin was a Navy carrier pilot, and there were other exhibits
that brought home many very personal experiences. On my first visit to the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum the experience was such a rush I had to
leave, literally, to catch my breath. I can only describe the experience as
what my friends in the '60s called a rush. (But their experience was
chemically induced.) If someone is fortunate to have a moving experience
the curator is to be congratulated. Hopefully they will have an uplifting
experience but any real vicarial experience is a triumph for the curator --
IMHO.


Doug
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Douglas W. St.Clair
Tir Na Nog
400 Burton Highway
Wilton. NH 03086-5022
PH: 603-654-9321
FAX: 603-654-5440
EMAIL: [log in to unmask]
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