July 22, 2006
A part of our adventure in Colorado has been good times with friends from Denver. When we first arrived at the beginning of our trip, they took us to the incredible Body Worlds2 at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This is the exhibit where actual cadavers are shown in various action poses, all muscles, nerves, inner organs, brains – everything is exposed. For example, a human figure was shown kicking a soccor ball and two graceful skaters were displayed executing the Death Spiral. A German doctor by the name of Gunther von Hagens invented Plastination, the method of anatomical preservation that replaces bodily fluids and fat in donor specimens with reactive fluid plastics. Before the plastics harden, Dr. von Hagens fixes the bodies into dynamic, lifelike poses. Smoker’s lungs and black lungs of a coal miner (looking very much like lung shapes of coal) were also shown, as well as every part of the human anatomy, both in healthy and unhealthy states.
When we went to Aspen, our friends joined us there for more adventures. Since all four of us are retired teachers of music it was great fun to do concerts together. (It was very satisfying to sort of cluck together, i.e. “too bad about the intonation in the second movement” or “they didn’t seem to be quite together – perhaps they didn’t have enough time to practice” as well as to all agree on how splendid most of the performances sounded.)
VIGNETTES
I was strolling through a shop in Aspen, and a little girl of about seven bumped into me as she briskly searched the designer racks – she yanked out a purple dyed suede leather mini skirt with fringe and held it aloft saying, “Mother, this is what I want.” The mother was two racks over, looking at shirts, and hanging on to the hand of a toddler who was playing with a shiny pink purse that had “Born to Shop” embroidered on the side of it, and her reply was, “ Why sweetie, that’s cute! Do you want to try it on?” It was really a garment designed for a small adult, but there you are.
Yesterday evening we were walking on the cobbled main street of Vail when we met a young woman walking alone up the hill. She was a bit past ample in size, and wearing a simple black dress with super high heeled shoes. The cobbles made her progress precarious, and with a look of pain around the corners of her attempt to look upbeat, she winced a little with every foot fall. I couldn’t help but wonder what her destination might be, and I sent a silent wish that her hopes for the evening would be fulfilled.
The reality check for this day is the news that the member of the Abendmusik Chorus in Lincoln who was diagnosed with cancer shortly after my MDS was identified, died last week. Both of us had signed up for the choir’s trip to Russia, and we visited about our chances of going as we did chemotherapy at the oncologist’s office. Charles and I canceled, but he didn’t – we decided that he really had courage and grit in his illness, never for a moment giving up or setting aside life. The choir had returned from the Russian tour just ten days before he died.