3 1/2 minutes for the arts.

I have been asked as a member of the Eureka Springs Arts Council to address a meeting on behalf of Opera in the Ozarks at the Crescent Hotel this afternoon from 2-4 PM. The idea is that I am to speak for 5 minutes about the arts, and if you know me, I will have to talk about the hands for at least a minute and a half to get the audience warmed up. They will literally have to grasp where I'm coming from. So that leaves 3 1/2 minutes. Others will be speaking about the arts as well.

First, you may not be able to remember Bill Cosby's third comedy album, "Why is there air?" And the same question seems to apply to the arts. Without air, there would be no life. Without arts there would be no human culture. You cannot engage successfully in learning anything of depth and cultural merit without engaging the arts. All the fundamental human values are expressions of the arts... which explains a great deal about our current corporate economy. It also explains a great deal about the 30% dropout rate in today's schools, and it explains the epidemic underachievement of boys. You leave the hands and the arts out of education and you literally fail to engage the hearts of learners.

Some may remember Jacob Bronowski who did a powerful PBS documentary series, The Ascent of Man. Jacob Bronowski suggested that the hands and their motions are the foundation of human conceptual development. He said the "hand is the cutting edge of the mind."

And so, turn up at the Crescent Hotel here in Eureka Springs from 2-4 and you will hear a bit more about the arts. 3 1/2 minutes from me.

In the meantime, I have been reading the Woodwork annual edition. I have to commend the new publisher for remaining 100 percent true to the Woodwork mission and quality. In Woodwork magazine you will find exactly what you may have learned to expect. Thoughtful and thought provoking writing and work exploring the fine tuned and precisely sharpened edge of human creativity.