OTTO FOCUS
Cindy Maddera
Thanksgiving at my family's house wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were a lot of leftovers, particularly dressing, but we all seemed to keep it together pretty well. One Holiday down, one more to go this year. Instead of fighting shoppers for unneeded and unwanted gifts, we took the advice from Deeper Motive and went to a museum on Friday. The Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art is hosting the Ann Frank: A Private Photo Album exhibit through December 18th. It is an extraordinary and somewhat heartbreaking exhibit that consists of family photos taken by Otto Frank prior to their time in hiding. I strongly recommend seeing this exhibit if it ever comes your way.
The Sherwin Miller Museum itself was a total surprise. I had no idea it existed until I saw the billboard for the Ann Frank exhibit on the Turnpike while on our way to Tulsa. The museum houses a lovely collection of ancient Jewish artifacts and a Holocaust section that dismays and enlightens, covering the struggle of Jewish people from the Holocaust to modern-day Oklahoma. The Holocaust section also does a good job of depicting the horrors of the Holocaust without showing the terrible images of the emaciated bodies from concentration camps. It was something you could take a classroom of children to without Tom Coburn having a conniption fit for exposing them to nudity.
Maybe it wasn't the cheeriest thing to do over the Thanksgiving weekend, but better to spend the time and opportunity on things like this when they come your way than being trampled by a crowd of people after a $30 DVD player.