So, as it turns out, if you really want to flatter me (and I’m easily flattered…) just call me a “polymath.” I admit, it is an old word and is not oft spoken in the modern era. But as someone obsessed with learning lots and lots of things about lots and lots of subjects, being called a polymath — someone with widespread interests or knowledge — is a compliment. I am interested in, well, most everything. Very few subjects, if any, are truly boring to me. OK, maybe editing my columns would be tedious and vacuous (Ed: tell me about it…), but otherwise, I love learning new stuff. I’m a polymath wannabe.

And as regular readers (Hi mom!) may have gathered, I have an obsession with history, both the really old and the relatively new. I have been a life-long amateur astronomer and I have a tee-shirt that reads “Astronomy: Est. 14.3 billion years ago.” I also love far more recent history. So, it is safe to say that my interests cover, well, the beginning of everything and most everything that has happened since. 

Which, of course, leads me to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science…

A recent Colorado Politics article highlighted that wonderful museum’s struggles with the COVID pandemic. Museum CEO George Sparks talked with CP about the challenges of running such an amazing resource during a time of widespread illness and fear (full disclosure: Sparks is an email friend of mine, as he is a reader of CP and once contacted me. He is a distinguished gent and is very passionate about his museum).  The manner in which Sparks and his team approached the challenges faced in the face mask era strike me as an excellent model for how best to limit the spread of COVID and then how to deal with safely reopening a gathering place like a museum or, say, a state like Colorado.

Sparks, being a museum guy, dug into the records of how the DMNS handled the last pandemic back in 1918. As it turns out, the museum closed back then. It shuttered its doors for a month, then reopened carefully. Ultimately in this crisis, the museum would stay closed for over three months before recently and carefully cracking open the doors. If you want to visit their remarkable astronomy exhibits or their really cool Egyptian displays, you need to make an online reservation, wear masks, and keep far apart from others, a task made easier by the museum carefully limiting the number of folks allowed in at once. Oh, and during the closed time, the museum staff created videos and wrote research papers and conducted online outreach.

Why am I going on and on about the DMNS? Well, in part to encourage you to become members and visit when you can do so safely and within their rules. But also because in a microcosm, the museum has created a model that I believe can be scaled for just about any organization, public or private, that is trying to find the way forward in the era of COVID. 

Simply put, the museum acted quickly to shut down when that was clearly necessary, and then was driven by science and evidence in making the tough decisions on how to get restarted. That is what Gov. Polis is doing on the state level, and, frankly, what lots of smart people are doing in both the public and private sectors. His latest mask mandate has been generally greeted with support, but some have politicized the issue and assert that masks are somehow tyranny.

I have spent many, many happy and educational hours in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; it’s a wonderful place for a polymath wannabe. I have learned amazing things and seen remarkable exhibits. The haunting displays of the bodies of Pompei were both powerful and deeply touching. 

But in this time of crisis, with far too many denying the reality of the pandemic (cough…Trump!…cough), I can’t help but wonder if the greatest lesson the museum is teaching right now is by modeling the responsible and safe way to address the virus. 

If we do things correctly — and that means nationally as well as on the state and local level — we can defeat this bug and relegate it to history. I imagine in decades to come, visitors to the DMNS will see a new exhibit on how the COVID crisis spread across our nation and how it was ultimately defeated. I am guessing that the exhibit will also have a section on those people who fought common sense and slowed the recovery. We already know one guy whose picture will be featured in that section (cough…DJT…cough), and I sure hope your picture does not end up there too.

So, wear a mask. Oh, and join the museum, it rocks.