Top line update:

This was over at the Gazeteer’s this morning. Vonnegut was a favourite and this story tells an important lesson.

http://pacificgazette.blogspot.ca/2013/11/who-says-almost-meeting-your-heroes-has.html

I’ve always loved music and have always loved learning. My aunt was a band/orchestra/choral teacher and devoted much time to her church music as well. My mother was a music critic at CBS a long time ago, but made it part of her mission to see that her family had musical opportunities. In the family, we had pianos, a clarinet, an oboe, a trumpet, a French horn, various guitars and even an operatic voice. It pains me when our local schools admin attempts to curtail any arts education. There was a link to this on Facebook this morning. Frankly, lets scrap big sections of the military and do this instead:

Why Music? The Many Benefits of Musical Education via Cool Daily Infographics

Of course, Dad was an architect who also painted when he had a rare free moment,  and was more than keen to pass along the rudiments to whoever would sit in front of an easel. Mother took up pottery at age 52 and produced a volume of wonderful creations. We all used to draw (imagine the potential staring you in the face when you unrolled the back of a superannuated blueprint and contemplated a dozen square feet of white waiting to be filled with the childish scrawlings of whatever child held the pencil…

And the house was full of books.