We flew into Atlanta, GA, and spent a day, then drove down to Mobile, AL for a short visit with Ruthie's grandparents, and then on to Auburn, AL, where we stayed in Ruthie's parent's home. Mike and Renee and my mom were unbelievably gracious in being willing to stay at our house for a week with the boys (who both had a fabulous time, we were relieved to discover). So we had the Wilbers' petit chateau dans les arbres all to ourselves for a few wonderful days.
Here are a few highlights:
I really wanted to spend some time in a museum since it's very difficult to do this with the boys, and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta had a great borrowed exhibit from the Louvre on display (as well as a very nice permanent collection). Forgive me for mounting a soapbox here, but I was struck by the sharp aesthetic decline as we walked out of the Louvre exhibit into the contemporary gallery of the permanent collection. The ancient pieces from the Louvre were beautiful, like this Roman sculpture of the River Tiber (personified) and the founding of Rome.Then you walk into the contemporary gallery in order to ponder the deep aesthetic insight contained in works like this:
This is "Untitled" (I wonder why) by Robert Morris, and in case you can't tell, it is a very large piece of 1" felt cut into strips. Now I think there's a lot to be said for contemporary art, and I'll even admit to having developed an appreciation for a lot of abstract art that I initially would have pooh-poohed. But even with that admission, I can't help casting my vote with the dissident conservative observers of contemporary high culture: something has gone very wrong when a piece of industrial grade felt cut into strips counts as a work of art. But enough of that. We loved the High; they had a very fine collection of decorative arts from the turn of the 20th century, and for some reason I'm finding myself increasingly drawn to the decorative arts. (We also made a trip to the recently-completed Mobile Museum of Art. Ruthie's grandparents, Tut and Harry, have been very involved with the museum over the years, and it's really a wonderful place.)
Ruthie's big wish was to see a play, which we were able to do at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery (about an hour from Auburn). This was particularly enjoyable since Ruthie has very fond memories of seeing plays at the ASF as a girl. It is indeed a lovely setting for Shakespeare. We saw Cymbeline, which struck us both as kind of an odd combination of Othello and Twelfth Night. Critics used to call it a tragedy, and it's now thought of as a romance, but it seemed to be a straightfoward comedy to me. (David, can you weigh in for us here?) But whatever it is, it was a lot of fun!
The only other thing we really wanted to do was lie around and read a book aloud to each other. (We used to do that a lot.) So we spent hours out on the back porch and down by the creek reading Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, sipping champagne, nibbling brie and strawberries--wondering what the po' folks were doing. It was id
yllic. Then, just when we thought it couldn't possibly get any better, we had another idea: This post is too long, but I want to be sure to communicate our heart-felt thanks to the many members of our family who put this together for us. The whole thing--airfare, childcare, hotel, food, etc., etc., etc.--was a gift, and we are very grateful!!! May God bless you all as you have blessed us.
Much love,
Matthew and Ruthie
