Arts and Missions

This is Marilyn.  In 1986, when I went to Paris with my mom for a semester, Marilyn and her daughter went too.  On the outside,Marilyn is larger than life.  When I ran into her at the opera this weekend, she looked much the same as she did in 1986: poised, elegant, stunning. On the inside, her character struggles to fill her persona.  I won't go into her moral deficits, because what I want to do right now is to thank her for being a patron of the arts.  In her support of the arts, she gets it, and I am grateful, especially in light of the recent threats that the National Endowment for the Arts may be defunded, even though it accounts for .004 of the national budget and provides countless jobs.   And as John F. Kennedy said, Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art.

There has been a ton of snow.  I love it.

Emily Abel has her missionary farewell reception this weekend.  She is lovely and good, and ready to go and work hard in Virginia.  We love Emily.

The set of Manof La Mancha.  I was slightly annoyed that the Utah Opera did a musical.  The set was interesting, the music is good, but come on. I would rather have seen Don Quixote.

Emily's sacrament meeting talk Sunday morning.