Finding Beauty at MFA Boston on Inauguration, er, MLK, Jr. Day

As planned rather than focus my attention on today's events in Washington, D.C., I spent the afternoon at the MFA Boston which had free admission in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with my friend Christopher Kain.

However, the proceedings got off to a very bumpy start. When I arrived at Porter Station the sign said the Braintree train was 5 stops away. But Alewife, the termination point for the Red Line, is only two stops away. I knew this long day was going to become that much longer.

Eventually, the entire Red Line shutdown and we were told to take shuttle buses. But not surprisingly the shuttle buses were slow in coming. I waited 30 minutes for a shuttle bus only to discover that it was only going to Harvard Square. Had I known that particular detail, I would have walked from Porter to Harvard rather than stand around in the bitter cold. 

To give you an idea of how slow things were, Christopher had already arrived at the MFA from Providence before I managed to leave Porter Square. Well, I should qualify that a little bit. He arrived on the grounds of the MFA and had to wait 40 minutes to be admitted. My wait turned out to be only half an hour, but I had to endure several LGBTQ college kids talking about their sex lives in graphic detail. It's not that I object to sex talk per se, but it is the sort of talk which is better discussed among friends in private. Let me put it another way. Somehow, I cannot imagine them wanting to hear any unsolicited graphic sex talk from me. In any case, I held my tongue and waited for it to blow over.

In all, it took me nearly 3½ hours to finally meet up with Christopher in the Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore exhibit which concluded today. We surveyed the Arts of the Americas, a special exhibit on Powerful of the People: Arts and Democracy (a germane exhibit under the circumstances) as well as a Jewish ritual exhibit which included a Torah Ark which was saved from a synagogue in Chelsea, Massachusetts which closed more than a quarter century ago. Christopher has become quite the art expert as he demonstrated when he took me to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum last August and was in his element.

We were brought back to reality when he had dinner at Galway House in Jamaica Plain. The Trump inauguration was on nearly all the channels and its red and yellow decor had a decidedly North Korean flair. Fortunately, the sound was down. If this was not the case, then we would have likely lost our appetites. Alas we both enjoyed hearty meals.

Whatever may come in the next four years and beyond, I still have friends with whom I can gather from time to time to enjoy life's small pleasures. If these small pleasures and the company which come with them aren't taken away, then the next four years will be a little more tolerable.