We then drove a little way across town to the Wichita Art Museum, which had a wonderful exhibit of paintings by George Catlin, a 19th c painter who went out and spent several years with the Plains Indians before the buffalo were exterminated. Link to Wichita Art Museum
We had experienced, in Dodge City, the center of the buffalo massacre, with over 1.5 million buffalo hides sent back east in the year 1872 alone. That doesn't count the millions of buffalo that were just shot and left to lie there. Catlin had a lot of respect and admiration for the Native Americans, and sketched and painted the individuals, as well as their activities (I sent Rowan a really cool painting he did of the sun dance ritual), especially hunting the buffalo. There were some other awesome paintings there; our favorite was by George Grosz! It was called The Pit, and seemed like a representation of hell, or perhaps a hell on earth created by human beings.
You probably have to see it in person to get the full impact. But anyway, we then drove south, heading back to Route 66. Our objective was Oral Roberts University, where we wanted to see the world's largest praying hands statue, as well as the mystical "prayer tower," where it is said that Oral Roberts would go to get closer to God. Since my belief system states that God is found deep in the human heart, and that "We found the Great Reality deep down within us. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found." (AA Big Book p. 55), I thought it was a little silly to make a tower (especially one that looks like a 1970s sci fi tv show) to get closer to God. But I would be proved wrong, as you shall see if you read on.
An unexpected and delightful surprise on the way was Tulsa's amazing new Woody Guthrie museum. Click here and you will wish you could have visited with us.
They have over 10,000 archival pieces, including manuscripts, drawings, recordings, song lyrics, and everything else. They have wonderful films of various artists, from Dylan to Springsteen to The Flaming Lips, talking about much Woody Guthrie influenced them. They have these amazing interactive exhibits where you can learn all about the Dust Bowl, the Unions, Guthrie's personal life, his family, his travels, etc. It was just tremendous. Next week they are opening this whole Bruce Springsteen exhibit that would be fabulous to see, with photos, interviews, and probably a visit by Springsteen himself. We started listening to Woody Guthrie in the car as we drove to Oral Robers.
When I first saw the giant praying hands, I must say I was impressed.
With me standing next to the hands, you can see how truly mammoth they are. The guy at the Guthrie center told me a joke, that they had been coming apart, but then they put some money in between and the hands closed up. Ha ha ha.
The entire campus of Oral Roberts looks very space age. That's the broadcast tower, part of the chapel, and some other buildings. But the most
Impressive of all the structures was definitely the prayer tower, especially with the spring blossoms in the trees below. Read about the Oral Roberts Prayer Tower
The idea is that prayer, communion with God (which is both speaking AND listening to Him) is central, and so the tower is at the center of the university. We met a really nice student in the tower and he asked if he could pray with us and for us, so we spent some time in prayer with him. It turned out to be a really cool experience, not at all cheezy (well okay, a little cheezy, I admit, especially with the statue of Jesus and the students, which was my favorite Jesus of all time):
This statue shows two ORU students sitting and listening to Jesus, so I joined in. He looked JUST the way I always imagined Jesus to be, really friendly and forthright, earnestly talking and listening to us all. I wished he could have been real.
We then drove up to spend the night at the Cherokee Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, the beginning of our journey into the Cherokee Nation tomorrow. Wow, those slot machines did NOT pay out. But I kept thinking about the amazing human services that the Cherokee Nation now provides, and kept a-spinning. The Phantom of the Opera slot machine was my favorite, but even on that I didn't do so well. Oh, here's something interesting. They had a craps table, but they had to play with a deck of 36 cards. Each card had a dice combo on it, and they would have to shuffle and pick a card for each time it was a "roll." Matt asked the dealer why they didn't just use dice, and he said it was illegal to roll dice in Oklahoma! I guess they found a way around it, but it seemed really stupid and took a long time, so we didn't play. It was more exciting to have a burger in Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar and Grill" and then do some two-steppin' on the smoky dance floor before retreating to our deluxe suite and retiring for the night. More on the Cherokee nation tomorrow.
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