Am I in any way a citizen of the world or only of my familiar part of the world? As we come out of seclusion, we are little groundhogs poking our heads out into the open field where we have lived sequestered far too long. Time to wake up, use our eyes and ears. Reclaim our ways of being. For me, this means a visit to the Denver Art Museum, not to be entertained, soothed, or confirmed in my vision of the world. I go there to see what I cannot see otherwise.

And always my first stop is to sit awhile near “Mud Woman,” a massive figure of a woman holding in her lap four children, each one with a different skin tone. She is the creation of Roxanne Swentzell, and so large that the work was done in the museum. One reason that I visit her often is that she reminds me always that while my own skin is pale, it is not White. Our labels lie in all sorts of ways.