The Sedgwick museum in Cambridge is a marvelous place for anyone that loves geology, and especially if you also love the history of the subject.
I'm on the mailing list for a local charity Camsight, who I'm thrilled to find today are discussing with Sedgwick Museum how to arrange a touch tour for the blind. This kind of initiative is what reassures me that, in the end, the human race is honorable after all.
Comments
New comment
"in the end, the human race is honourable after all."
That is the reality of everyday for most people almost every day. We get along, achieve what we need to, have a few grumbles and disagreements, come to some form of compromise and, on the whole, end the day fed, dry and warm.
The news gives us the impression that life is not like that. They don't report good news or initiatives or successes, but focus on every damn bit of fear and horror from around the world that they can find and repeat it over and over from different angles.
No mention of the millions of people in the UK who do voluntary work each year. Yes, it is millions.
No mention of the vast sums donated in sponsorships and chucked in collecting tins or paid in standing orders.
Nothing about all the 'pleases' and 'thank yous' and 'can I help you with thats' and 'have one of mines' which occur every second of every day.
Nobody mentions the hundreds of thousands of wheelchair ramps that have been installed, just the ones that have not or cannot. Likewise the multi-lingual leaflets or large print or Braille or web sites designed with screen-readers in mind, which get grumbled about as "PC gone mad" or "a waste of money". The web designers that do that extra training or research into how to make web sites accessible or building services managers who give thought to high contrast paint schemes or textured surfaces that the rest of us don't notice.
Society works because almost everyone almost all the time makes it work, by going along with others, making a bit of effort, applying a bit of thought. That tends to go unnoticed, which is sad.
So it is good when someone points out efforts being made, like this. We all ought to advertise and broadcast them more often. Especially something like this because tactile response is very important in geology. Rocks behind glass are boring really quickly. Feeling sand between ones toes, the incredible smoothness of volcanic glass, the greasiness of talc (yeah, talc is a rock), the silkiness of fibrous crystals - these are memorable learning experiences. If you get the chance to go to this exhibition, or one like it, do so. And take someone else. Or find something local that's similar and do that. Contrary to the marketing, you really don't have to go to a Disney site to have an experience. My life-long love of mineralogy came from a tiny exhibition somewhere near Weston-Super-Mare one rainy day when I was very young where they let me handle some of the coloured rocks and stones.