I have been working diligently on my Clay Oven eBook so I needed a break away from the screen. Ben suggested that we visit the Museum, so off we went.
The Melbourne Museum is big. So big, that we didn’t get to see all of it in the time we had allocated.
Firstly, the dinosaur exhibit.
We read all the information and looked at all the bones. The displays were very well made, with information about the era each dinosaur lived in, what they ate, and how they lived. We must have spent the first hour just reading all the information.
My thoughts and comments to my daughter Megan were that the timelines of the dinosaur age are just unfathomable when compared to the human timeline. We have been around for the blink of an eye, and managed to stuff up the environment in only a couple of hundred years. The dinosaurs were around for hundreds of millions of years and didn’t manage to stuff anything up. Kudos to the dinosaurs!
We then looked at how old the earth was. It was old, like 4.5 billion years old. It surprised Ben, but I had already learnt this when I was his age!
From a globe of red hot magma, to a planet with water and continents supporting life. An amazing transformation, and somewhere amongst it all was life. Precious in all its forms.
Then into the mammal exhibition. Walking into a room full of preserved animals made me feel very sad. To think that many of these beasts are nearly extinct, because of our disregard for our actions, with no thought of the consequences. A barrel of fun to take to the museum, aren’t I?
I spent a lot of time here looking and looking, with moist eyes. I didn’t let the kids see though, as I didn’t want to spoil their day out.
What did make me shed a tear was an exhibit at the entrance to this room. It was the Human Population Growth Exhibit. Here is a video of it.
You’re not alone, Gavin. I’m the same when it comes to interacting with the sort of information you find in a museum or gallery. Wandering through the State Library in Melbourne the other week elicited similar sentiments from me. No, actually, it was flicking through the old Victorian Parliamentary Hansard books and soaking up the debates of 50, 75, 100 years ago. Oh how they looked at things differently.
You are not alone, Gavin. The current mess we are in truly is the stuff of nightmares…
Yup, happens to me too. It would be too easy to despair, you have to take a big gulp of air and carry on, because what’s the choice?
It’s not just you. I get very sad in exhibits like these and often feel like the only one in the room who sees it for what it is.
Hi Kirsten, glad it is not just me then. The reality of it kind of just smacks you in the face.
No happens to me also. Reading books,watching docos, visiting museums anywhere really that shows so vividly what we are do to destroy ourselves. I also wonder if I’m the only one who can see it. But of course there are more and more of us as your comments show.And yes it does my head in, but it also makes me stronger, more determined and I usually end up more strict with myself about conserving resources and only using what I need. But the sadness does overwhelm me sometimes! But my spirits are usually lifted when I work in the garden.
Hi PP. I too find working in the garden uplifting, and usually breaks any blue feelings that I may accumulate during my observations of our current predicament.
Keep those hands grounded, and stay sane! 😉 x
Me too. Watching the telly, movies or doco’s, I tend to be vocal in my disappointment and sadness, yelling at them and correcting them. I imagine a trip to the museum would result in the same. All we can do is soldier on and try and spread the message as far as we can and hope that there is a cure for the virus of consumer humans.
do you think the whole world should have a one child policy?
No, I do not. I support family planning and education for all women in the world, so they can make better informed decisions.
Gav
What does the future earth look like?