History, Naturally

Today we went to the Museum of Natural History. I give my highest recommendations, especially if you enjoy watching people stumble around in awe with mouths half open looking at bones and footprints and making exclamatory, enlightened statements like "Woaaah. Can you believe that? I can't believe that." If you were there today those people would have included me.

Highlights included the butterfly conservatory and an IMAX movie: Cosmic Collisions, complete with narration by Robert Redford. I think I enjoyed them so much because both involved older men talking fondly about science. It's very endearing to watch a stout, elderly man carefully explain the color patterns of a South-Asian butterfly as he tries to coax one onto his finger.

Me. Maybe there's something aesthetically pleasing about large, smooth, bony plates that I'm drawn to.

Staring at dinosaur fossils and prehistoric kangaroos made me wonder about the people who spend their lives studying life forms from millions of years ago. What a strange perspective it must be, constantly thinking of history in such large-scale terms. I can hardly get my head around today, tomorrow, and maybe last week. Maybe we would move through life differently if we all had a paleontologist's sense of time.

The food. Mostly self-explanatory. Those are sweet potato french fries!