Gifts


So, we're busy. Last week especially our plate was overflowing with goodness. Good friends, good parties, good events.


Mr. Blandings and I make a point of only being out together one night a week. If we can. Then we both have the occasional meeting, but at least the other is home to help with homework and sports carpools and computer glitches.


Last week was nutty bananas. We were so lucky to see Eddie Ross and Jaithan Kochar when they were in town. Twice. The last time at home and we could have stayed up until two a.m. catching up.


But yesterday things settled down and the youngest Blandings boy and I had the chance to go to see the new American Indian galleries at the Nelson with a friend of mine and a friend of his.

The weather has been cold and yesterday was overcast. In addition, this weekend we've been upended as the flue on our furnace draft is not opening which is leading to carbon monoxide venting into the house instead of outside the house. We have detectors, but it's troubling.



Always when I enter the Nelson the world melts away and yesterday was no different. The meetings and projects and downdrafts were gone. My friend and I wandered through with our six-year-olds and asked questions about piles of rice and rows of beads and cages for crickets. The girls agreed that given the opportunity, all the turquoise bracelets should be worn all at once and definitely not one at a time.


And while not all of us were aware, a couple of us were, that collectors and givers like Morton and Estelle Sosland have shared their passion in an incredibly generous way. Certainly, and unknowingly, they provided a respite from daily cares and the anxiety of postponed holiday shopping.

Go, if you can, to see the Nelson and particularly the newly opened American Indian galleries. Admission is free.

And if you don't have carbon monoxide detectors, don't delay.

All images courtesy of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

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