A while back, I headed over to the Art Museum. I haven't been to this museum since about 2010, and I'd been looking forward to seeing the new exhibit. While my buddy and I were checking out the art, a Group Tour started following us; it seemed like wherever we went -- ducking down corridors, hiding like snipers -- that damn Group Tour was in the way. So, when I came upon one particular, rather shocking piece of work that leaked out on to the floor about ten feet, Group Tour was in the way again. So, considering myself a genius, I decided I'd just jump over the part that was taking up floor space. Indeed, at first, I had planned to step on it, since I really did think it was interactive art, and there was no sign there, but then I thought the jump was doable, and I wanted to see if I could make it.*
So, I jumped, and even though I was wearing my platform Chucks, I cleared the above-mentioned artwork with ease. Think Supergirl, She-Ra, Xena, the warrior princess, you get the drift. For a moment, I felt like I was wearing armor, carrying a sword, and getting ready for a date with He-Man in the Museum Cafe.
Then I heard the entire Group Tour gasp. Group Tour Leader let out the loudest gasp. All heads turned. To look. At me.
Yes, it was clear that all thirty or so Group Tourists thought that I was beyond disrespectful, as well as an absolute plebeian when it came to the land of art. And then I was in more trouble.
See, right then and there, a female officer grabbed my arm and whispered, "Ma'am, please walk around it." She grabbed my arm tighter, and she wasn't showing any signs of letting go.
I thought for sure I'd get arrested or kicked out. I muttered, "Yes, yes, there was no sign. So sorry," I said, feeling shy, ridiculous, and embarrassed. I had completely cleared it, and I was proud of my jump, but I suddenly realized that my bold move was akin to someone attempting to leap over a Picasso like it was a sprinkler. "So sorry," I said again, turning into neon pinkish salmon goo. Then I hesitantly looked up and smiled at the officer, and when I studied her face, my eyes widened, and I was the one to start gasping. She wasn't any old officer. I knew her. From way back. At one time, she had been a close friend. "Oh my gosh! Tonya! (name changed) It's you!" I shouted, totally disrupting Guided Tour again.
I leaned in, tightly hugging Tonya's uniform.
"Christine, that's you!" Tonya shouted. With strong arms, she hugged me back, and then she squinted to get a better look at me. A light beamed from her deep brown eyes. "How the hell are you?" She laughed. "So good to see you!"
Then we embraced again, and we caught up for a good long while right there next to Group Tour and the art.
Group Tour Leader struggled to keep her group's attention while Tonya and I talked and yelled and laughed, cutting it up right by the edge of the art that I'd cleared with my mammoth jump.*
I'd like to say that the lesson made me more subdued, but as my buddy and I waved goodbye to officer Tonya and the exhibit, I couldn't resist creeping up behind Group Tour Leader to make bunny ears behind her head while she talked to her thirty listeners.
I dunno, I think I would've made the artists proud, because this particular exhibit was about the barriers that prevent us from connecting with each other as human beings. If I wouldn't have decided to push the limits, to take a small risk, I never would have known officer Tonya was there that day. I never would've been able to reconnect with my long-lost friend. And there, right in front of a display of a quite disturbing work of art, Tonya and I were embracing with ease.
Amidst the chaos, amidst the pain, the universe provides us with loving comfort through those around us, if only for a moment. So surprisingly enough, I never got kicked out. Sometimes, for me, the lessons of art happen right on time.
And it pays to know the security.
C.A. MacConnell
*The jump was not far at all. I am known to be a terrible jumper, because I wear pants with really long crotches, so for me, I act as if it were an Olympic leap, when it was actually only 2 feet at most.
