Each Day Already is a Challenge

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We exchanged gifts yesterday. Incurable Romantic 's daughter, Tiffany, was with us for the weekend, but she had to head on home on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday, we visited a no-kill animal shelter and selected a kitty who is about 10 months old. Her name is Opera, but Tiff and my son think that Oprah sounds better. She surely is full of energy. We thought that since our other cat (about 4 or 5 years old) had started acting playful and "kitten-y" the past few weeks that she would welcome some younger company. Not yet. Right now she's practicing hissing. I guess only time will tell if they'll become friends or just learn to tolerate each other. Today the kitten has been responding to the hissing with her own little growl.

On Sunday, Jim, Tiff and I attended church together. Then we ate and opened packages. Soon it was time for Tiff to go home. Our weekends with her just seem so short.

Sunday evening we went to our Christmas Eve service. Jim played his cello in two of the songs. Bless his heart. He hasn't played in probably 40 years, but he did well. A bit of stage fright, probably. And I'm betting if he's going to participate often in the praise team, he might just need a pair of trifocals. I think the music is just out of range for either the distance or close-up part of his bifocals.

Today the weather is cold and rainy. That's not exactly what you expect from Christmas in Ohio. But we're not alone in strange weather. My sister - the one in northern Michigan - informed me that this was the first year since she's been there (over 20 years) that they didn't have a white Christmas.

The rain and gloomy sky made me quite tired this afternoon, and I fell asleep while watching TV with hubby. We were watching a show on HGTV about Christmas celebrations and decorations in the warmer parts of the U.S. It brought back fond memories of how we tried to make Christmas more festive when I lived in Texas and Florida...and the December 25 temperatures were in the 70's. Most of the lights and yard decorations were rather tacky. At least I thought so. And that's probably why I fell asleep in the chair with the new purring machine on my lap.

I decided to check my emails and see if anything exciting was happening here at WDC. In doing that, I ran across a website: http://www.unitedstatesartists.org

They quoted a study by Urban Institute, Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists (2003), and Rand Research in the Arts, Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts (2004).

What I found interesting - and most likely true from my experiences of having people tell me that one cannot make a living out of painting, sculpting, or writing - was that 96% of Americans said they were inspired by and highly valued art in their lives and communities. Oddly, though, Americans do not value the artists. Only 27% believed that artists contribute "a lot" to the good of society.

That is strange, indeed. Our fellow citizens value art, but not the act of creating that art.

Here's a quote from the web page referenced above:

"Further interview data from the study reflects a strong sentiment in the cultural community that society does not value art-making as legitimate work worthy of compensation. Many perceive the making of art as a frivolous or recreational pursuit."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by these statistics. After all, supposedly over 85% of Americans believe in God. But many of them don't want anyone talking about it.