Heritage Dance Events

Old-Fashioned Fun

One of the books that I read this summer was entitled The Great Reset by Richard Florida, and in it, the author reviews the history of past economic declines and shares what he thinks the current economic situation will bring. He quotes a Gallup survey that said overall spending in the U.S. was down

twenty percent in 2009. Florida says, “Although spending on tangible goods, especially luxury goods, is demonstrably down, consumers haven’t stopped spending completely. Some of the consumer power has been redirected toward more experiential purchases: travel, wellness and fitness, entertainment, self-expression and self-improvement. The creative class… will continue to seek out restaurants and cultural events, they will take their families kayaking and skydiving or on “volunteer vacations,” they will brew beer and start vegetable gardens and build

furniture…”

This summer, our family looked to travel as a vehicle for making memories, and most of the things we did were plain, inexpensive, old-fashioned-fun activities. My daughters and I visited my mother in Missouri, and in my mother’s small town, there is a roller skating rink. So we gathered up cousins and other relatives and went skating! That evening, my sister barbequed chicken, and we watched as all the cousins caught

fireflies. We ate my mother’s famous homemade cheesecake, and to finish up the evening, we gathered around the grand piano, and while my mother played, we all sang. I would rather have that day in my memory than anything that could be purchased in a store.

The Gift Economy

My daughter spent the summer at the L’Abri in England two years ago, and when she returned home, she brought audio copies of some of her favorite lectures. We listened to one of these CDs on the way home from Los Angeles earlier this summer. It was about the difference between the Market Economy and the Gift Economy. In the Market Economy, you exchange something of value, like money, for a commodity. After the exchange is through, you have received your commodity as “a right” since you paid for it, and there are no lingering effects.

The Gift Economy builds community in several ways. First, when you have received something that you did not pay for and did not deserve, you have gratitude toward the giver. Gratitude leads to thankfulness which is one of the foundations of our human experience. Secondly, the receiver often feels indebted to the giver and looses some of his independence and autonomy which is necessary for community to build. (and which is why some people do not like to be given gifts.) But most importantly, the Gift Economy must take place in real community. The Market Economy creates boundaries while gifts move across boundaries and abolish them.

This summer, a couple from our community of friends gave us the wonderful gift of staying at their river front cottage for a few days. My family enjoyed swimming in the river, doing puzzles, writing stories, hiking and playing games. The gift of the cottage included much more than a house. It encompassed all it means for a family to have time away to enjoy each other. I am

forever thankful and indebted to our dear friends, and our community together grows deeper and deeper.

The Importance of the Arts

My family went camping at Lake Cachuma a few weeks ago, and, for the first time, I attended an outdoor PCPA play in Solvang. Although I have attended many musical performances, plays and operas over the years, this play stood out as one of the best theater performances that I had ever seen.

In the play’s program guide, the artistic director of the event, Mark Booher, wrote about the fact that many of the people at the performance were “arts supporters” – people who are willing to invest their money and time in promoting the arts. I would definitely classify myself in that category. But perhaps more importantly, Mr. Booher goes on to say that those of us who attend these events are not only supporting the arts, but the arts support us also.

He says that the arts, “… lift our heaviness, they buoy us on the stormy sea, they elevate our low points, they bolster our foundations and occasionally they prop up our otherwise crumbling facades. The arts support our fully realized humanity – the expression of ideas, feelings and realities that are otherwise difficult to express and activate. Art is one of the prime means of conveyance of our internal essences to our outward life – bringing us from being into action, from silence to communication, from isolation to connectedness.”

I thought about that quote as I watched the Too Young to Marry trio perform at Cambria Pines Lodge a few days later. Their music did express their inward beauty that we, as an audience, would never have experienced without their music.

Below are a couple of links to their music that day. I hope that you will be inspired to b

ecome even more of an arts supporter, and that you will find yourself supported and encouraged by the arts as well.