identitySPECIALIST

Yesterday, we went to the Getty Villa in Malibu with the Student Senate from my school.  

The Getty Villa was a beautiful museum of Getty’s antiquities collection.  He wanted to rebuild and recreate the Villa de Papiri – an ancient house in Herculaneum – sitting halfway up the slope of Vesuvius.   The house belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso.  In his house, they found carbonized papyrus scrolls containing the philsophy of the day. They found 1,785 – that is why they call it the house of papyrus or paper.  It was a magnificent building and Getty wanted to recreate the villa so that people visiting in Malibu might be able to “experience” what it would be like to walk in the original villa in Naples, Italy.  His vision for such a magnificent structure and recreation is absolutely astonishing.  Each room is themed accordingly and is consistent inside as well as outside.  

As we sat with the Student Senate executive team, we challenged them to have such an incredible vision of building something so magnificent in the future.  It started with an incredible vision of a a visionary of days gone by.  But he has built an incredible experience – not just a building, but an experience. 

At the end of the conversation as we were closing the talk, I talked to them about how I had see the Bay of Naples.  It actually looked a lot like Malibu.  I haven’t seen the Villa de Papiri, but I was able to see the precision of the placing the Getty Villa where they did.  Getty had experienced Naples, and he loved it so much that he wanted to share that experience with others.  Getty – because he went to Naples, was able to recreate Naples in Malibu.  We left with that challenge.  You cannot lead people into an experience of Naples without having gone to Naples yourself.  You can only lead people to those experiences that you’ve experienced yourself.  I cannot lead students into an experience that I know nothing about.  

It helps to have experience on your side.  It helps to have had those experience, but if you haven’t bring people along who have.  You cannot bring people into an experience of Naples without having been yourself.