Preserving What?

One of the joys of my adult life is that I married a man who, in addition to great calves, has great understanding. I am always learning from him. In politics especially he is very temperate, very thoughtful, whereas I tend toward extremes.

A recent challenge came from his column in the Abereen American News.

This paragraph was particularly striking to this stick-in-the-mud conservative that I often am:

"We often look at the arts and humanities as luxuries. This is especially odd coming from so-called conservatives who sometimes deride these subjects because of their lack of economic utility. But what precisely are we conserving if not our culture and civilization? And if the arts are important to the cultivation of our souls, thus the cultivation of virtue, should not those who worry about cultural decline advocate hardest for the promotion of the best in the arts?"

But what precisely are we conserving if not our culture and civilization?

That struck me to the core. How do we raise our children to be somewhere between robotic-like fascists and lovers of those squishy, voyeuristic excuses for art that are so popular today?