Commentary by management consultant Michael Wade on Leadership, Ethics, Management, and Life
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Which Would You Prefer: The Museum of Really Boring Stuff or This?
I recall The Wall Street Journal article about the number of lawsuits, but instead of museums that are monuments to boredom, wouldn't you rather go to this museum?
By all means the "City Museum" is far more inviting. Anyone, adult or child, who thinks otherwise must have a crippled imagination and no sense of wonder and adventure.
It's a mistake, however, to call it a museum. In my developmental years I was lucky enough to have a real museum (the old boring kind) in my reach, so much so that by the time I finished high school I had become a veritable bar fly at the place.
Without that museum my development would have had a big deficit that I would never have known was there. That's how it is with some parts of our cultural heritage. The person who eats with elbows on the table or has never heard a live performance of a chamber orchestra is not likely to ever be aware that his life has any room for improvement. The same holds true for appreciating and knowing the difference between sidewalk art and the work of great painters and sculptors, especially those without names from places like Asia, Africa or pre-Columbian America.
Seems to me there is room in the world for both places. A museum with boring stuff needs a more imaginative curator and better enrichment programs for adults and children.
3 comments:
Yes, this one. E.
E,
Absolutely.
Michael
By all means the "City Museum" is far more inviting. Anyone, adult or child, who thinks otherwise must have a crippled imagination and no sense of wonder and adventure.
It's a mistake, however, to call it a museum. In my developmental years I was lucky enough to have a real museum (the old boring kind) in my reach, so much so that by the time I finished high school I had become a veritable bar fly at the place.
Without that museum my development would have had a big deficit that I would never have known was there. That's how it is with some parts of our cultural heritage. The person who eats with elbows on the table or has never heard a live performance of a chamber orchestra is not likely to ever be aware that his life has any room for improvement. The same holds true for appreciating and knowing the difference between sidewalk art and the work of great painters and sculptors, especially those without names from places like Asia, Africa or pre-Columbian America.
Seems to me there is room in the world for both places. A museum with boring stuff needs a more imaginative curator and better enrichment programs for adults and children.
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