It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it’s one damn thing over and over.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
I have always found this quotation profound (and if the attribution is wrong, please let me know). There is a sameness to life that is hard to resist, describe or escape. Every morning, I thank God for the chance to live another beautiful day, but the days do often run into one another in a way that makes them hard to distinguish, both in prospect and retrospect. That's not news to regular readers, who will recall my own aphorism: "what some people call a rut, I call a comfortable routine."
What generally leads me to this part of the blog (as opposed to the assembly of the links forwarded to me by my clever and far-flung correspondents) is something out of the ordinary, either an epiphany or a vacation. Well, I'm not really going on a vacation this year for Spring Break, although I will be in Portland, Oregon for the Patricia Swenson memorial service late in March. And I've been short of epiphanies of late as well. Plus, once in a while I have a thought that I don't share. This will come as a shock to those who know me and remain convinced that no thought has ever passed through my head without also passing through my lips (or in the case of this medium, my fingers). You'd be surprised.
I will mention that I went to Fort Point yesterday with a dozen of my students. It was built in 1861, and spared from destruction at the time the Golden Gate Bridge was built above it. If you've never been, it is worth a trip. Truly amazing and fascinating. Never fired a shot in anger.
After that, since I was in the neighborhood and had been meaning to go for some time, I stopped by the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco's Presidio. This is, without question, the single coolest multimedia museum I have ever set foot in. Walt is everywhere, in stills, silent film and television footage, and what a life he led. Take a few minutes to ogle his Oscars and awards before they take your ($16) ticket. I spent two hours there; plan on longer. The amount of material presented is gargantuan. If you are interested in any aspect of Disney (with the possible suggestions of his reputed right-wing politics), you'll learn more about it than you imagined from this museum.
