Letters to the Editor
Leowolf
Published Letters: 22 Editor's Choice: 6
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Leave!
[Read the article: I'm a small-town girl dreaming of the big-city lights]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This might sound a little harsh, but: There is absolutely nothing about your life that sounds like it appeals to you. Nothing that you mention in your letter makes me think for half a second that you have any reason at all to stay.
The hang-up for you seems to be this man. Even though he does not make you happy, you stay with him because he tells you that you are beautiful. That is not a reason to stay. Other men will tell you that you are beautiful, I promise. Other men will tell you that you are beautiful, and have some of the same interests and life goals as you do, and want to have children, and want to raise those children in a culture you feel comfortable with.
Please don't marry this man because you are afraid of being alone; if you do, you will feel alone for the rest of your life. Being alone is hard at first but it gets easier pretty quickly. Finding someone who loves you and also talks to you, does things with you that you enjoy, has children with you, teaches those children your shared values, etc., etc., will feel a million times better than the life you are contemplating now. I promise! Please go for it!
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Sad commentary
[Read the article: Classical music falls on deaf ears]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm a New Yorker, so I encounter street musicians all the time. I would often love to stop and listen, and if I have time, I consider being able to do that one of the joys of life in a city. But if I don't have time, which is usually the case, I just pass by, and it doesn't matter how good it sounds. And, as someone else pointed out, city-dwellers become trained to ignore distractions around them; as was mentioned in the original Post article, a crowd didn't even form when a guy dropped dead. I love music, have played several instruments, study music history, etc., etc.-- but if I don't have time, I don't have time. End of story. I can imagine that I would have walked right past Joshua Bell too if I had been rushing and purposely tuning out any distractions.
The most important part of the article, I think, was that people who were educated about classical music knew they were in the presence of something awesome, even if they didn't recognize Bell. Classical music needs to be understood to be appreciated, and most people aren't given the tools to understand it. I think it says something very sad about the priorities of our culture that most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between me playing the violin and Bell playing the violin, or the difference between a piece by Bach and a piece by some unknown contemporary of his whose music has fallen by the wayside because it was just average, but that's the culture we live in. I don't think that means our culture has devolved, necessarily. It's just that it's sad that this great art form is underappreciated by a lot of people because they are never given any tools with which to understand it. That the majority of the population misses out on this (the same goes for other types of art and music as well) because it's too expensive to educate kids about music is sad.
I think the Post article was a commentary on how we cut ourselves off from beauty in our daily lives because we are so focused on the daily grind-- not a commentary on the swinishness of D.C. inhabitants. I don't think it was particularly snobbish, nor do I think that Bell came across as snobbish-- he was surprised that he was being ignored because he's used to adoration whenever he's holding a violin. It must have been disorienting!
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Why?
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You ask: "What I mean is why do the idiot rantings of an out-of-touch gasbag have such power? Why wouldn't the obvious response be to blow him off, ignore him, the same way the players wouldn't give a second thought to an opposing fan who yells, "Rutgers sucks"?"
Because he's an out-of-touch gasbag with a huge audience who regularly plays host to influential guests and was getting paid millions to do it. Some idiot fan shouting out an insult at a game? Blow that off. A guy with the platform to tell hundreds of thousands of guys just like that one idiot fan that calling women whores and making racist remarks is not only ok but funny? Speak up.
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Hey, IRS guy
[Read the article: I'm a jazz pianist, nearly 50, and I need to make some real money!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, not to "blame" the IRS, since we need to pay taxes and we need the services provided by the money, but I also make in the ballpark of $17,000 a year, and you can believe I pay taxes. It might not seem like a lot to someone who makes a decent salary, but when you only make $17,000 a year to begin with... And this guy probably has to pay more than I do because he's self-employed.
Anyway, the LW didn't seem to be blaming the IRS; he just mentioned it as one factor.
LW-- if you want a change but don't know what kind of change, what about signing up with a temp agency? You could make some easy money and experience some different work environments/fields. Maybe you'd find a place you like and could get hired full time, or be exposed to a line of work you find interesting that you could pursue. At the very least, it is a flexible way to ease into the "work" world and you could do it just a few hours a week as a supplement to your income, if you wanted to continue playing as much as you do.