Ballet And Opera Prove That All Art Is Worthless

I'm not a fan of either ballet or the opera. My parents did their best to give me a well-rounded exposure to the arts and I've seen several of each, but I never enjoyed them. I appreciated the talent and effort that went into them, but that's as far as it goes.

That clearly indicates that all art including music, poetry, painting, photography and contortionist performances is rubbish.

On Easter Sunday, we had dinner with the fam at middle son kitteh's house. Grandkittehs, daughter-in-law kittehs, soon-to-be-daughter-in-law kittehs and youngest son kitteh were present. During our conversations, the topic of the boys' experiences at Steubenville arose. Steubenville is an annual Catholic retreat for youth, typically in 7th or 8th grade. It's music, speakers, praying, conversations and a variety of normal youthful diversions. Both of them disliked it, middle son kitteh in particular.

The crux of the dislike was the hysterical reactions of the girls during the event, particularly during Adoration. The leaders of the event had warned them that they might become emotional when the monstrance came out with the Eucharist which only served to amp up the girls, prepping them for hysteria. The guys didn't have any such reaction. When the monstrance made its appearance, a couple of the girls lost it followed by a couple more in reaction to the first ones. The guys thought the whole thing was ridiculous and the event was ruined right then and there.

Incidentally, a few years later, daughter kitteh went to Steubenville and loved it.

Anyway, I sat there and listened to the lads talk about it. I'd heard that same story about a dozen times and always wanted to say something, but I couldn't figure out what. On the way home that night, it finally hit me. 

The guys just aren't very spiritual. Mysticism doesn't do anything for them. That's OK, it doesn't do anything for me, either. Neither do opera and ballet, but those don't invalidate all of art.

God created everything and gave us a rational mind and emotions to suss out the meaning, purpose and nature of His works. No one will ever understand or appreciate even a tiny portion of what He created. Who cares? Just focus on the things you love, focus on your strong suits and go with those. Let others find joy and meaning in the rest. For all the guys know, some of those girls really did have deep, mystical experiences. 

I enjoy Adoration and I believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist, but I've never been able to work up feelings of awe about it no matter how hard I try. It simply is just like hummingbirds, sunsets and the Saints winning the 2010 Super Bowl. Again, so what? Mysticism and awe just aren't my bag, man. It doesn't negate the faith, it just tells me to drop the subject and wander off to the topics that move me.

OK, I admit it, this was pretty awesome.