Greetings all:

Ever one to get involved in such matters, I'm including a link (below)
to a most profound parable I came across years ago.  Naturally, reaction
to the story will vary greatly amongst museum professionals.  (You see
variety at this URL, as well.)

        http://www.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/books.html

David added a keen comment about "aura" - in one of these messages -
which is a shade of Walter Benjamin.  While Benjamin mourned the risk to
"aura" by mechanical reproduction, he championed mechanical reproduction
as a means to spreading knowledge.  This relates to comments several
days ago from someone who mentioned having a copy of the Constitution on
his bookshelf.  Of course, the words are the words . . . regardless of
the sanctity (or existence) of the original artifact.  While I'm all in
favor of conservation/preservation, I'll not drive myself to the point
of pathological.

Deb mentioned ego . . . in the context of 'publish or perish'.  Of
course, in history, egos are responsible for great masterpieces and
world wars.  I'd rather do without the great masterpieces in order to
avoid the world wars!

Congratulations to Gene, David and Deb - excellent observations all
around.  Roy: Always helping us put things in perspective!

Sincerely,
Jay Heuman

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