Archeology and Cosmetology

This past week, I went to two fun events: a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls and a Mary Kay party. Did you ever think you would see those two items in the same sentence? I know - it's exciting! So what do these two things have in common? Aside from the obvious connection (me), I found two little nuggets of wisdom reiterated at them.

My friend Jessica hosted a Mary Kay party on Tuesday. During the shindig, we tried out different types of makeup and skin care products. At the end of the evening, the Mary Kay consultant had us do a little "compliment circle." Okay, that's not the exact term, but it works. We focused on each person one at a time and said what we thought looked good on her. Of course, the goal is that we'll love hearing everyone compliment the blush/mascara/foundation and will buy stuff ;) But it reminded me of the importance of giving people compliments. I often think to myself, "She has such great taste," or "He is always so nice and says hello," but I don't always say it. It's nice to hear good things, so I'm going to try and do that a little more frequently.

Later I went to a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls at the North Carolina Museum of Science. The museum is currently exhibiting some of the scrolls and is featuring a lecture series on related topics. Wednesday's topic was "Israel at the Time of the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Historical Background of the Scrolls." I was lucky to make it in; the lecture was so popular that they created an extra session of it. Aside: I love going to little lectures like this. It's fascinating to hear people talk deeply about their niche knowledge, and I enjoy gleaning knowledge about different fields. I'm feeling the need to put in a longer plug about the importance of liberal arts education here, but I will refrain :)

Anyhoo - one of the points Dr. Schiffman made was that when reading the scrolls, we should keep in mind that we only have a small knowledge of things. There's a wider context that the scrolls may not address. So rather than read a scroll and treat it as if it tells us everything, we need to remember that it may be leaving out assumed common knowledge, be biased, be incomplete, etc. It's a good point that can be extended beyond historical interpretation and literary criticism. Sometimes we don't have the full story.