Unlike minded, like hearted

We spent the morning in Oxford, starting with a session in the natural history museum. It’s a very cool place, with a stone cathedral style outside and a greenhouse feeling inside with an iron and glass roof. It was built as a teaching institution as well as a museum in the mid 1800s and the vibe is a mix between a science lab, an art gallery and a museum. In a lovely touch, the angel at the top of the entrance arch is holding a slide where a cell is splitting . 

We had a bit of time to explore inside, which I spent in the Pitt Rivers section- a curiosity cabinet of a room, dark, crammed with cases organised by category, not geography or history: “Baskets”, “Items used in burial rites”, “food preparation tools”. Sometimes they were really detailed specific categories, sometimes broad. The labels are hand written and there is no particular order to the arrangement of the categories, or the objects within the cases. I was wildly curious about how they decided on the categories, and whether the sub level of the category was to make sure all the objects in a category fit into one case -“Hang on , this group doesn’t fit- quick split it into fish catching tools large and fish catching tools small”. I found it much more engaging and interesting than the Ashmolean.

The theme this morning, was paradigm shifts, with a physical box of Darwin’s Botany Bay bug collection and a first edition of his book as props. Side note, there were definitely not enough different bugs in that box and I’m questioning Darwin’s work ethic. Less intense than the last few days it still generated good discussion and thinking about patterns of change and reception of new ideas. 

The programme heads have very cleverly integrated a tour of Oxford by using it as a chance to talk about how out buildings and environments both reject and shape our culture. It was effectively the experiential version of a theoretical session on organisational behaviour which we had on Tuesday. One of his really interesting points was that it’s hard for the University to look outward when its very college buildings are oriented inward, keeping out anyone not already inside. Our guide was a fabulous communicator, very knowledgeable and engaging and it would have been perfect, but for the biting cold. We could hardly wait to get back inside. 

Our afternoon started with a session on persuasion. I was unimpressed with the presenter, and thought he was poorly prepared, lazy and trite, but I’ll put up my had and admit I was a bit tired at this stage so it might not be a valid view. Certainly some others really liked it. A coffee and an afternoon snack helped me settle a bit, necessary for the next session which was a deep dive with my tutor group buddies about me. They ask questions and give feedback and generally help me put some plans in place about what next. I don’t mind this stuff- it’s intense and exhausting but really helpful and I love my group and my tutor so it’s a very safe space. 

The dinner tonight was a surprising success. We were in individual break out rooms in groups of 9, and were asked to bring a poem. Over dinner we each read our poem and talked about why we picked it. I can see some of you rolling your eyes while to read this but it was great! People picked interesting things and brought a number of cultural beliefs to the table. Conversation topics inspired by the poems included the death of a father, having 24 wives in Nigeria, and facing fear. Such a lovely experience to sit and discuss different ideas in a collegial warm hearted space. The title of this post is the motto of the Rhodes Foundation (we saw the building today) and feels so appropriate to describe today’s experience.