Polymath

My favorite St Andrews historical personage is Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. He was a professor of natural history, a mathematician, a zoologist, a museum developer, classicist, and parrot lover.

He had a reputation, even before taking up the chair at St Andrews, as being eccentric. He once said about his magnum opus On Growth and Form "it is 'all preface' from beginning to end." The book advocated natural laws that govern behavior rather than strictly focusing on evolution. Which at the time in 1917 was kinda radical. He also used math to point out differences and similarities between species.

This book inspired both Alan Turing and Jackson Pollock. Talk about differences in the species! He created both the natural history museums at the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews(I enjoyed studying in the Bell-Pettigrew, which I talked about in an earlier post). One of his habits after moving to St Andrews would be to walk about town with his parrot on his shoulder.

My point here is that Professor Thompson was a polymath. Equally comfortable with language, science, math, and art. And parrots.He refused to be confined to disciplines. He would have made a good librarian.

I've decided to be more like D'Arcy W. Thompson. I'm not going to get a parrot and it's probably too late to be a renowned mathematician(even if I wanted). But he knew how to own his differences. He made them work for him. That's what I'm going to do. Learn more, walk about with a figurative parrot on my shoulder, use my knowledge and not apologize for it.

After all, I am a librarian. And as another (probably) polymath and librarian, Allen Smith, once said, "In order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know. I don’t know of another occupation like that. The more you know, the better you’re going to be.”

 

New Adventures

I have embarked on a new adventure.  I went back to school.  While that doesn't sound very
adventurous on the face of it, that is only because I haven't told you where I am attending school.  I applied to and was accepted at the University of St. Andrews.  In Scotland.

In fact, I am sitting in their library writing this now.  Mostly because the internet hasn't been connected at my place.  All hail the power of free wifi! I can't WAIT till it gets connected at home. 

So the move was exciting, but very stressful.  I couldn't pack some stuff that I wanted, and had to wait until it was shipped.  There were other things I forgot to pack and needed.  Like my camera cord and a few more DVD's.  I've only really just got used to the place and not missing home all the time.  I do still miss my bed though. 

So a brief intro to what I'm studying and the views I see as I walk to class.  According to the university I'm an M.Litt student (fancy way of saying I'll have a Master of Arts in the fall.) in Museum and Gallery Studies.  It seemed like a good idea with my library and archives training.  It's really interesting, so far.  I've got an essay to write abut research and scholarship as a function of museums.  So I've been doing a lot of reading and note taking.  I like the topic and with my Yale experience it's kind of natural.  As you can see I was hard at work studying...

Today I did some exhibit prep and went to the museum collections unit to look at objects.  Historical science instruments.  I'm on the physics of sound group.  I'll wait while you laugh...I understand.  I did too.  'Cause I went into library science for the science of it. There are some really cool objects though.  My favorite is the wooden xylophone. I'm hoping we get to use that. 

I live about a 20 minute walk from the center of town.  It's not a bad hike, although I have a feeling in the winter it will be very cold.  I'm considering getting a bike.  I get to walk right past the ruins on my way to town, which is nice.  The old castle and cathedral suffered during the Reformation.  I blame the Calvinists. 
But it's hard to fault the views.  It's one of the best commutes I've ever had.
I like walking past the harbor, even if it adds a few minutes to the trip.  I would miss the ocean. 

 See what the Calvinists did?  Honestly...

 These are the Castle Sands(fancy way of saying Beach) right near the Museum of St Andrews(MUSA) where I have class every week. 

 And this is from the top of the hill looking out to the pier and the North Sea.

Now that I have my camera cord I can share photos!