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Blog 463 – 11.12.2016

What Art Means To Us

One of my favorite novels, one I have read easily six times, is Taylor Caldwell’s classic Captains And The Kings. It is the story of an Irish Catholic immigrant’s struggling rise from

poverty to incredible wealth. The character’s actions are often as ruthless as the robber barons of the  age in which the story takes place but I remember how touched the character was by art and beauty.

Art in general, as music, one of the arts, not only has powers to soothe the savage beast but enlightens our sensibilities and broadens our awareness of the beauty in our world. Not so long ago it was thought by most that a liberal arts education was the basic starting point of a curriculum for a truly educated person. We have become a society of specialists and techicians and have by and large shunned the liberal arts to our detriment. 

Neglect the humanities and we are less human, fail to teach literature and we are less literate, cease teaching music appreciation and generations will lose the appreciation of the great music of our past. Without a knowledge and appreciation for art in all its many forms the world becomes a concrete and asphalt jungle market place where everything goes to the highest bidder.

I remember a Saturday Night Live character Father Vito Sarduchi made a Public Service Announcement about getting a  education in the late nineteen seventies. He mentioned several possible careers but said the one that sounded best to him was Artist because they got to sleep till noon. Many artists have to work a day job and maybe even and evening job too in order to be able to pursue their art. Oh, a few lucky ones get recognized and paid well for their gifts but we are all blessed by the art that so many create because they cannot do anything else.

Even the lucky successful ones probably look back to an earlier less hectic time in their careers before fortune and fame when like Glen Campbell’s Rhinestone cowboy they could say, “I remember the time when I sang my songs (or did my art) for free.” Thank you, each and every one of you artists, art promoter,  benefactors of the arts, teachers and professors of all the arts for your efforts to bring art and beauty to us all.

You friend and fellow traveler,
David White