I'm Steeping Myself

Colorado Springs is ideal for steeping yourself like a tea bag in what is disdainfully called CULTURE.  First, it's inexpensive, second, it's accessible with ease, and third, it's first rate.  OK, is this New York City or Washington D.C.?  No, but it's very worthwhile to pursue.  Americans have been sold a shoddy bill of goods which says enjoying art or serious music or performance dance is not worth the expenditure of time.  What a load of crap.

If creativity wasn't important to us as a species, why do ordinary people so avidly pursue it?  Oh, true, we are steered away from being creative sometime in our elementary school years.  Can you still remember the thrill when you finished your first 'real' painting or fired your carefully constructed clay pot in art class? Then, subtly, the products were ranked, and if your flower painting wasn't one of the best, you quickly got the message you should turn your activity and attention somewhere else.

Creativity is marketed to the masses as hobby, and it is big business.  The creative urge is still there in each of us.  We knit, sew, woodwork, quilt, decorate, journal, cook, and garden with passion trying for the thrill being creative flames in each of us. Drake and I have never apologized, and we even proselytize the real benefits of going to museums, ballets, symphonies, the theater, and yes, even operas.

I have great admiration for one of my friends who buys season tickets to a different cultural venue each year and insists her grandsons accompany her to the performances.  At least they are getting the opportunity to be carried away by creativity.  Some folks are so shortsighted, they don't give their children even exposure.  Yet, they will spend the same dollars an annual membership to a museum costs to take them to one professional sports venue.

In Colorado Springs we became members of the Fine Arts Museum in part

"Study for a David & Goliath" by Paul Cadmus

because we were blown away by the quality of the art.  Is the art "highbrow"?  No, not particularly.  The place is chock full of really wonderful stuff which is interesting to look at and think about.

Additionally, we've been attending performances of the Colorado College School Music Festival.  We've seen the very creme de la creme of American musicians - prestigious contest winners (a Van Cliburn gold medalist!), the lead clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater,  as well as lead musicians of the other instruments from various symphonies from around the country.

Next month there's a month long dance festival.  Ansel Adams, a universally acknowledged master photographer, has an exhibit just down the road.  There's a thriving music scene here, and I haven't even scratched the surface of the museum opportunities.  There are garden concerts, jazz concerts, and the Philharmonic comes out of summer hiatus over the 4th of July.  I'm gleefully rubbing my hands together anticipating all the enjoyment the dreaded CULTURE is going to provide during this stay.