First Stewards

He Came From Fire

First visit to the National Museum of the American Indian.

After decades of walking past, I visited the National Museum of the American Indian - New York (right - not the term we use today, but that remains the name of the institution) for the first time, on an outing with old friends. (Footnote 1)

Abstraction After Wakapana

One of the current exhibits is of works by Oscar Howe, who is an artist who is Native American. The works are gorgeous. The images here are the ones I was most drawn to.

Cunka Wakan (Dakota Horse)

The gallery spaces are just fantastic. And the building itself is beautiful, in that architectural style of old municipal buildings and institutions.

A gardener (of which I fancy myself one) is but a steward of the land. And this patch of dirt on which I live, where I tend to my garden in the sky, was first tended by the Lenape, and then taken from them. That from the trauma of generations such amazing artwork can still emanate is at once surprising, and not - the human spirit is enduring and astoundingly resilient. That said, even it has limits. Same for the earth.

Skylight in dome of the Alexander Hamilton Custom House, which also houses the federal Bankruptcy Court.

There is so very much for us to learn.

Painted ceiling, columns, adornments inside the Alexander Hamilton Custom House.

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Footnote 1: I am practicing the art of always saying yes to invitations from dear old friends - the ones who see you through the lows and share the highs, through all of your stages. This outing was pulled together on one day's notice. We all used to see each other often, before kids, before COVID. We used to all live near each other on the Upper Eastside, a long, long time ago. Now there are nap schedules, family schedules, travel time, babies that have become teens and surpassed you in height. But, also, with littles about, excuses to visit playgrounds, go down big and tall slides - even for, especially for, adults! Reasons to get in out of the sun into air conditioned museums, ones that used to be walked past. Reasons to go to the top of old teenage hangouts and get introduced to delightful rooftop vantage points that either were not open in the Big Bad 80s, or that as a youngster from modest means appeared closed off and unattainable. 

Reasons to hold on to dear old friends and seize the day.

[Edited September 6, 2022 to add links and captions.]