Beautiful Book

My friend and former classmate is having a give away/contest on her blog for a beautiful book that she made. The idea behind this is to motivate people to do what they can to help with the disaster in Japan, by donating money or something to help these people out. The details are on her blog but you should check it out, a chance both to help other people out and a chance to win a beautiful book, she really makes beautiful books, much cooler than the ones I make.

Reading and Liberal Arts

I was looking at the newspaper this morning, which is somewhat of a rarity for me, and even more surprising is that I actually read several articles. The article that drew me in was one questioning the value of the liberal arts, things like English, humanities, communications, etc. I was drawn into this article because I attended a liberal arts school and received my degree in the arts, specifically visual arts (and that is about the most stereotypically useless degree there is, we perhaps English (no offense English majors, I didn't say it was useless, just stereotyped that way)). I saw this article happening all around me. I could count the male students that I had art classes with on two hands, through all four years. This did not stem from a male lack of interest in art, but rather a lack of belief that there was a living to be made with a degree in art. The story could be told with almost every branch of the arts.
It always made me sad to think of people going into something just for the money, as if that were the most important thing in life. Yes, money is important, and very useful, but it is not the only thing in life. Isn't doing something you enjoy and which fulfills you also important.
The article I read today touch on this, and others I have read have centered more on it, while sciences and math are areas where a job is more likely to be available upon graduation are a good thing, they may be pushed too much. The article pointed out that the reality is that the majority of people will not end up working in their fields of study, that we don't really even know yet the sorts of jobs that will be out there in the future. I also think about an event I attended sponsored by the Italian Club, it was to encourage people to major in Italian if they enjoyed it. In this day in age a bachelors degree is not the final destination of most students, in applying to grad schools, etc. and it was pointed out how being an Italian major made applicants stand out from the crowd in an advantageous way.
The liberal arts are still a viable commodity, it may not be emblazoned in red letters but there is still importance and relevance behind them.
Another article that I read struck me and tied in to the above article indirectly. I read an article about literacy and how important it is to develop that. The tie in to the liberal arts is that even in math and science fields being able to write well and to read and understand is very important. Literacy is a huge issue, one that I think is largely put on the back burner. I was told a few years ago that literacy levels in schools are declining to where individuals can graduate from high school and still be largely illiterate, perhaps only literate to the point that they could fill out a job application.
In the article I read today, other issues of illiteracy were pointed out to me. The point was made that an illiterate mother can progress the cycle of illiteracy and that illiteracy can lead to all types of problems, form crime to poor health. On the issue of health alone illiteracy can cause problems from not reading up on nutritional needs for children, etc. to not knowing understanding the instructions for a medication, etc.
Read with children! Help children and others become literate, it could be such a simple way to make a huge change in our world.

Little Women

Little Women, I got to see this opera recently and I was skeptical. I knew going in that it was not your average melodic type opera, it was more modern and 20th century type music, if you're familiar with the composer John Adams at all, that's the type of music I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, though parts of the opera were more modern music-y, and in 12 tone (if that means anything to you, it doesn't really to me) other parts were quite melodic. A big difference in the opera was that I don't really recall songs or arias that much as one might with other operas, what I did take away were there phrases "things change Jo" and variations of "things were/are perfect as they were/are" Those were the main themes focused on in this opera, Jo and that she wanted things to stay as happy and perfect as there were to her, and people in turn telling her that things changed and had to change. So I quite enjoyed this opera and I'd recommend it. I compare it to Aaron Copeland's music, I heard once that though his music was so modern, it was made relateable because he worked so much with folk songs, things that people knew, this opera's plot line is one that is near and dear and well known to so many, I think that's part of the reason it's so popular. Anyway those are my thoughts.