The Houston Museum of Fine Arts had an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and after begging, I got Mother to go with me to see it. She had heard of the Scrolls and remembered hearing the news when they were discovered. I told her there would be other things there that were mentioned in the Bible and that piqued her interest.
They had a self guided tour set up with headphones. Mother put on her headphones and together we entered the exhibit. As a member of the Museum, I had free admittance, and that impressed Mother so much she said that she was proud to be with She must have seen that as special treatment normally shown to VIPs. If my free admission added to the pleasure of seeing a special exhibit, I wasn’t going to spoil things by trying to explain the benefits of museum membership.
Wearing our little digital players with headphones, we both entered the first room of the exhibit. We both hit ‘Play’ and walked toward Exhibit #1. Her parting words to me were, “Now, don’t take all day. I don’t feel so good;” The self guided tours are very explicit; they tell you where to go and then give a full description of what you are seeing. There is no fast forward or selection device that would allow a visitor to skip an exhibit or move at a faster pace. .I listened to the narrative for #1 and headed for #2. Soon I was totally absorbed in what I was seeing and forgot to keep track of Mother.
When I came to an exhibit showing one of Salome’s earrings, I looked around for Mother. I wanted to be sure she saw this since she knew about her from a movie with Rita Hayworth. She should have been near me since we both started our taped tours at the same time. I found her looking at an exhibit in another room. I stopped my player and went over to where she was looking at exhibit #14 or #15. I couldn’t figure out how she could have gotten so far ahead of me until she removed her headphones. I could hear the narration and realized that she was looking at an exhibit of religious artifacts from Solomon’s Temple and listening to a description of eating utensils found in a typical home of the period. She looked unhappy, and I was not surprised, when, pointing to her player said, “This was a waste of money. I don’t understand anything he’s talking about.”
I didn’t try to explain the reason she was confused. i asked her about the earrings. She didn’t remember them and after seeing them asked me, “Do you really believe those are real?” ‘I said,”Yes.” She said, “I can’t believe they could find anything from that long ago and I just can’t believe those are really her earrings.” She then said,”I’m ready to leave. How much longer are you gonna be?” I couldn’t believe she had gotten through the whole exhibit. I ask her if she had seen the Dead Sea Scrolls. She said, “No,” “That stuff bores me. Hurry up and let’s go.” I told her to sit down on one of the benches and I’d hurry. She went back to the exhibit that showed a piece floor belonging to Pontius Pilate. I went over and said, “Mom, can you believe it? These are floor tiles from the temple where Pontius Pilate had his court. “Yes”, she said. “Can we leave? I’m ready.”
I heard her headphones talking about an exhibit in the next room. She said as we left, “That stuff don’t mean anything to me. I don’t understand it. That’s it for me. You’re not dragging me into another museum; no matter who it’s about.” This was not a surprise. After watching a play at The University of Texas in which my sister had the lead role, she said,”Anet, are we through? I’ve had about all the culture I can stand for one day.”