Terry asked me if I would like to sketch at a meeting of a book club she has joined. We drove to a beautiful house in Winter Park and walked back to the pool house where the meeting was to be held. The book they all had read was “Making the Mummies Dance” by Thomas Hoving. Thomas was the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and apparently an A type personality who disclosed the cutthroat politics involved in making the museum run. I didn’t read the book so I can’t offer any insights other that what was discussed at this gathering. Most of the women did not like the book finding it to dry and technical. Many of the women did not finish the book in time for this meeting. They did seem to agree that Hoving’s abrasive personality did result in some sweeping changes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The discussion then turned to a book that had been discussed in a previous gathering. This book was written by an 65 year old woman who started putting ads in the personals because she wanted to fully discover her sexuality in her later years. Some felt sorry for the woman who was acting like the high school girls they pitied who would do anything for attention from boys. A heated discussion then erupted about whether sex and personal intimacy might be separate entities. Being the only man in the room, I wondered if I should chime in, but I had a sketch to finish.
