Windows & Mirrors

The Saturday before my birthday, I took a road trip to Greensboro with my sister, Emilie, who was in town for the weekend. Elisabeth and Rachel jumped in the car with us, and we headed for the Greensboro Science Center, a cool hybrid zoo, aquarium, and museum that is the perfect destination for this challenge: VISIT A ZOO, AN AQUARIUM, AND A MUSEUM.

We ate lunch at First Carolina Deli and then took a quick spin through Rachel’s alma mater, Greensboro College. This beautiful little liberal arts school is tucked into the heart of Greensboro, where Rachel played volleyball, made lifelong friends, and generally took over the city. Then we were ready for an afternoon of stingrays, dinosaur bones, and maybe a lemur or two.

Visiting a zoo or aquarium or museum with others often requires undiscussed negotiations: how long is too long to linger, what amount of reading exhibit info is too much, how together do we need to be? I’m not one to read every bit of text but I do love a nice long watch. We started in the aquarium.

Aquariums can be tranquil, dimmed rooms filled with brightly lit tanks housing floaty, often colorful, creatures. If it wasn’t for the screaming masses of kids, you might actually be able to relax. The highlight was the penguins. African ones, I believe, who appeared to be in pairs, their names displayed on colored matching bands circling one wing: Raven, Artemis, Pat. We enjoyed discovering their names and watched entranced as they stood, and slept, and groomed, and occasionally, even swam.

We eventually moved on to the museum and the zoo but didn’t linger. Although the day was nice, it was windy, and Rachel, though mobile and a gamer, was just two weeks past knee surgery for a torn ACL. We’d had our fun, engaged our brains, filled our memory banks.

When I worked for the Onslow County Public Library, I was fortunate to be a part of the process of building a new library branch. Managed by the formidable and forever missed Liza Barrett, the Sneads Ferry branch was a tiny, tired, retrofitted bank-building-turned library that was due a fabulous new building. We gathered in the Richlands branch library meeting room with the architects tasked with bringing our visions of the library to reality, and the only thing I remember is this quote: “A library is a museum for books.” One of the gentlemen spoke the words, and I’m not sure if the silence I remember went on as long as I recall, but we, on the library side, collectively fundamentally disagreed with this idea.

Sneads Ferry now has a fantastic library co-located with an environmental center, so they have a library and a museum, and so much more. Having moved away and then back again, I had little to nothing to do with its ongoing development, construction, or the final building except to get the pleasure of working with its dedicated staff.

Libraries, I think we all can agree, are not museums for books, and museums are not catalogs of victories. The thing about zoos and aquariums and museums is that they bring the good with the bad. Information often does. I’ve been thinking about this lately, the role these institutions play in our society. The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian celebrates the military service of native Americans and shares the violent relationship between America’s original inhabitants and those who came from afar to “settle” this land. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park offers a taste of the African plains complete with giraffes and rhinos and a side of conservation and concerns about habitat loss and endangered species. The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knolls Shores follows loggerhead sea turtles and their arduous journey from egg to ocean, noting the threats they face, especially plastic pollution, if they are successful.

In the library and in the world of children’s literature we often think about windows and mirrors. We seek books that offer a window into the experiences of others and books in which the reader can see themselves reflected. When I write about the lives of military families I try to do the same, offering a glimpse into our lives and hoping that readers will see themselves reflected in some way. Museums offer windows and mirrors, too. I believe we are best served when we strive for both.

This was an easy challenge to complete. I love these cultural institutions, especially zoos, and am fortunate to have visited so many as we moved, including the many entities of the Smithsonian Institution, which, incredibly, are all free to enter and enjoy. Writing this post, that wasn’t so easy. Where to start? When to end? My mind is filled with a lifetime of memories of engaging in these activities. I could just list them, forcing you to watch slides from my travels and waking you when I’ve reached the last one. I’ll offer just a sampling instead:

• As a child visiting the zoo, I remember eating the pink cotton candy I’d recently begged for and was amazingly granted while watching the bears with my mom, the Oklahoma wind sticking candy-coated strands of hair to my face.
• Escaping Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for a long weekend in Norfolk, VA, and visiting the aquarium in Virginia Beach, a 3-year-old Rachel nestled into Lee’s lap, her 3D glasses sliding down her nose as she reached out to touch the jellyfish.
• Biking through the Canberra Zoo, past the otters and the Tasmanian devil, utilizing both the incredible system of trails and our family zoo pass.
• Andrew and I facing four lanes of traffic after I drove the wrong way down a one-way street leaving the aquarium in Baltimore.
• With hints of COVID-19 in the air, Andrew and I avoided handrails and excessively washing our hands as we explored our favorite exhibits at the Natural History Museum on my birthday, March 10, 2020. Then, masked up to visit the Air & Space Museum on July 29, 2020, to celebrate Andrew’s 21st birthday.
• Watching the tigers for hours at the National Zoo with Elisabeth as they scratched trees, begged for food, and swam in the water surrounding their habitat.
• We visited the Oklahoma City Zoo the weekend after Christmas, on our first visit back to Oklahoma City without Andrew. I walked the grounds of my childhood zoo, feeling the warmth of the sun and the familiar wind, surrounded by the love of my extended family.

I could go on and on, but memories are a bit like dreams, complex to accurately capture, often dull for the listener, and meaningful primarily to those involved. Hopefully, after subjecting you to my memories, I’ve engaged yours.

Thank you, as always, for reading. If you’d like these posts sent directly to your email, go to the menu and subscribe.

Before you go…I will refrain from listing all of my favorite institutions but I would like to mention three that I highly recommend if you visit Washington DC and are looking for something to do in addition to the Smithsonian. The National Building Museum, Planet Word, and ARTECHOUSE aren’t free but they are well worth the cost. I don’t miss the DC traffic but I do miss access to world class museums (and the zoo!) If you have a particular zoo, aquarium or museum that you love please share, I love recommendations.