(Boston, Massachusetts, Memorial Day in the US) – In an attempt to fill a gaping hole in my cultural experience, I finally managed to visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for the first time. When I was a college and graduate student in the area during the 1970s and then later while doing my doctorate years later, I somehow managed to miss one of America's, if not the world's, great museums of art.

And so I decided that while in Boston for a family wedding, I would make up for lost time and visit the museum, especially since I mention it in my book, Rise (pp. 11, 303-304). Lilah, the book's protagonist returns to the museum to see Claude Monet's Morning on the Seine, near Giverny, a work she has admired in the past. I had come to see the work for myself and found myself dazzled by the Impressionist and post-Impressionist holdings in the MFA's collection.    

The museum is astounding and requires repeated visits to appreciate. I hope to return there, again and again.