Art for Goodness Sake

Yesterday afternoon, Joe and I went over to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) which is less than a block from our hotel. We had a couple of hours and we knew that, though we don't get much of contemporary modern art, they had some work by Van Gogh, and Picasso, and, Gauguin, and Monet and Rousseau and Kahlo. That would be worth the price of admission. And they were.

But that's not what really mattered.

Not to say it didn't matter. We looked with awe at many iconic paintings. It was a bit difficult, being in a wheelchair to see past people, often those who stared at me in one moment and then stepped in front of me in another simply choosing not to see me. But. I'm not writing about that. We chatted as we went around, looking at this painting and that. We rolled our eyes at some of the modern works - things we aren't able to see or appreciate as art. We discovered some modern painters who took our collective breath away. We were like a couple of sour old folks despairing at people walking through the museum, holding cameras up to paintings and walking off ... never having seen the painting outside the screen of their camera phone.

We chatted about people. Noticed things that Ruby would love, that Sadie would disassemble. We wandered around as if time didn't exist. As if job pressures and home worries were suddenly just gone. As if hurts never happened. As if time itself had become buoyant and carried us along. We were simply taken out of our lives and into a different space. A parallel universe. The art captured us. The art moved us. The art took us by surprise. Art did what are was supposed to do.

But so did space. The space was full of people but the floors were easy to navigate on and I seldom tired and needed help to push. I could turn on a dime and stop in an instant. The floor was a floor made as much for wheels as for heels. The space provided little challenge so we could concentrate on the most important art.

The art of simply being together.

The art of time spent well.

The art of using brackets - (real) life..

We took no phones.

We took no cameras.

We simply took each other out.

MoMa gave us pictures to look at.

MoMa gave us space to easily move about in.

But we, us, Joe and Dave, spent a few hours making art.