The visit with Jen was far too brief. We walked around various colleges and checked out the Wren Library. We biked to Grantchester for tea at the Orchard and later went punting on the Cam.
We made dinner and stayed up late talking. It has been sixteen years since we met at Governors’ School but the intervening time has not changed either of us as much as I might have predicted. We share a commitment to ethical behavior that can be exacting, but this makes it easy to continue talking to each other.
On Saturday we took the train to London and visited the British Museum and the Tate Modern. I thought the children might be bored but the girl was pleased to see canvases and objects by Dali and Magritte. She liked the David Goldblatt photographs, especially Miss Lovely Legs Competition at the Pick ‘n’ Play Hypermarket Boksburg 1980. The boy was amazed by the Gerhard Richter Two Greys Juxtaposed, and intrigued by the Cy Twombly sculptures.
They nodded over the Anselm Kiefer canvasses Parsifal and Lilith but neither thought much of the Beuys Lightning with Stag in its Glare.
On the train ride home we played hangman and the children amused people with their antics over the game. Neither guessed the solution when I plotted my surname.
Upon seeing L – A – my son guessed lachrymose.
We all got up early to wave goodbye as Jen departed for her conference. It was strange and lovely to wander around with a friend from home.