The View From Aurora

In the Jurassic Period, before the Rocky Mountains rose, Colorado was warm and humid, with an ancient grassy plain crossed with rivers and forests, populated with many species of dinosaurs. This map shows the future Aurora’s proximity to an inland lake.

A timely reminder

Gazing up at a starry sky or drifting clouds reminds us that we are each a very small speck in the vastness of the universe. Another humbling notion is that we, and our human lives, are less than a blink in the span of time. A trip to the Aurora History Museum illustrated that second thought.

Really old stuff

I was hoping to learn more about my adopted city, how certain buildings and lakes and trails came to be, maybe what made Colfax Avenue so famous. So I went in one Saturday afternoon, paid my $5 entry fee, and asked if there was an exhibit that could help me learn about earlier times. “Why, yes,” said said the receptionist, and pointed down the hall to “Prehistoric Aurora”.

So I began with the dinosaurs—or actually even earlier, by millions of years, when continents were still joining and separating. The models, illustrations and explanations were on loan from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and will be there until April 5.

There are maps of the changing geography, with Aurora’s location indicated by red dots. The bones and models progressed from trilobytes to mastodons and beyond. So many eons in between. That’s when I began to think of how short even the longest human life is. Not insignificant, not to be forgotten, but also not more than part of an endless march through existance.

Meaning beneath the surface

This isn’t about science but about some thoughts on humility. It’s impossible to stop the march of life and time, but we can move toward a kind of utility. People are hurting each other. Many people are helping each other. We are all seeking comfort and energy. We could use this millisecond of manifest existance to leave a trail of memories of love and helping and building. We can read the daily news for what it is: a signpost. Stop. Detour. A hint about where our help or energy can be of use.

The news, remember, can also be the school lunch menu or a movie listing. Or an announcement about an exhibit on prehistoric life. I’m using this moment—on Presidents Day, as it happens—to contemplate the vast reach of time in which even our country’s history is a passing moment.

The hidden gem

Anyway, I learned the museum has some history of its own. It’s website explains,

The Aurora History Museum opened its doors in 1979 in a historic building with two small galleries and an office. In 1990, the museum moved to its present location and re-opened in 1991. The museum collects and exhibits artifacts and documents pertaining to the history of Aurora and Colorado.

The museum also has a close connection with the Aurora Historical Society; the society’s historian, Keith Outcelt, also works at the museum. The weekend receptionist is Lorelis, who estimates an average of 20 people visit daily. Most are local groups or tours from schools and senior centers. My own introduction to the museum, several years ago, was with a group: the Hearing Loss Association of America’s Denver Chapter. We went to see an exhibit of Nepalise art arranged by a member from that country.

I asked Lorelis why the museum building is so hard to locate, nestled as it is between the police station and the new city hall. She explained that before the move in 1991, the building housed the city attorney’s office. It once faced a street that has disappeared since the larger buildings grew up around it. “I think of it as a hidden gem,” she said.

The Thornton Torosaurus joins his neighbors from other communities in the display.

Let’s be a force for good

In more recent news, based on the report of the Munich Security Conference, it looks a lot of U.S. government leaders spent Valentine’s Day in Germany. Among them was our own Representative Jason Crow. During a discussion of foreign policy, here’s what he had to say:

We need a national security and foreign policy that looks like America and has the experiences of the American people. It means partnerships that are rooted in fairness and that deliver for working-class folks everywhere. What we know is that isolating ourselves from the world will deliver disastrous consequences at home and abroad. Our foreign policy is being turned into an extortion ring for Big Oil, for the Trump family, for elites. They’re bullying our partners and allies… We want strength and peace, but we don’t want to be extorting and bullying our friends. We want to be a force for good.

Why the new name?

When I decided to quit the position of editor of High Altitude Hearing, I thought I would leave the subject of hearing loss behind. Of course, I still have hearing loss, as do many of you. So it will be hard to stay completely off that topic.

But for now, we’re going to take a look at the many ways we are all connected, through the experiences of people we meet every day. And, I’m finding that right here in town (or nearby) are reflections of life around the world: people, food, culture, and beliefs. Let me know in the comments what you think and what else you’d like to see.—Paula