"Art is the proper task of life" (--Friedrich Nietzsche))

When my siblings and I were small, my parents went to great pains to expose us as often as possible to art, literature,  theatre, music and ballet.  They would frequently whisk us all off to Shakespeare in the Park, or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or to the Nutcracker Suite ballet at Christmas time at Lincoln Center, or Radio City for the Big Holiday extravaganza,  etc, etc,  since we lived quite close to New York.  


When other families were off watching movies by Disney, my parents would get us spanking-clean, dress us up in our pajamas, and tell us that we were going on an outing.  If we wanted to know where we were going, we'd ask, and my dad would reply, in a mysterious tone,  "We're going to see Booksty-Hootery."    Booksty-Hootery was usually a good thing: like going for a chocolate derby ice cream, or maybe heading to the drive-in  movies.  But as I said, most kids would head off to a movie like..., say:  "Parent Trap," and we'd go to see something like  "Lord Jim," by Joseph Conrad.   What can I say... we were nerds from the get-go.


My parents were very smart, because by getting us into our pajamas early, and letting us take our pillows with us, we'd bundle into our station wagon, and we'd sit in "the way-way back."  We loooooved the way-way back.  Invariably, we'd all wind up crashing to sleep back there, and my parents could readily hoist us into our beds upon the return home.  But we were easily entertained, and happy to be out in our pj's at the drive-in theater.


Now, mind you, as little kids, we were not exactly thrilled at the prospect of heading off in search of CULTURE.  In fact, there were times when I dreaded it as a child.   I would think, "A-gain??"  Whereas today, I am highly likely to seek out all of the above on my own,   and I'm happy as a clam whenever I have such opportunities.


One of my favorite pastimes is to visit art museums, but aside from the art itself, I love observing the people as they, in turn,  are observing the art.   It fascinates me.  

"A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world."  (--Edmond de Goncourt)

(As usual, on the road, without a scanner, these images are awful!  I apologize.  Sketch of a photo I found on the internet.)