Just sharing a nice anecdote I got while reading a book. This is a segment from an essay by Peter Coyote, an author and a writer, on how he imagines the arts will be in the near future:
Popular music might begin to express affection for things other than sexual objects, might expand its scope to include love of place, parents, friends, other species, and water. (I once had the good fortune to live for several weeks with the Hopi snake priest David Monogye. Well into his nineties when I knew him, he was a wry and sophisticated observer of mainstream culture. He used to tease me by observing, "We Hopis have lots of songs about water because it's so rare and precious in the desert. I notice that your people sing about love all the time. Is that because it's so rare for your people?")
The Hopis, if you're asking the same question, are a tribe of indigenous Native Americans living in Northeastern Arizona. And, yes, I was struck by this brilliant observation from an otherwise impartial outsider.
That's because it rings true to what we see today. Love has become scarce and this isn't strictly an American phenomenon. In a world increasingly plagued by broken families and utilitarian relationships, it is so easy to see why love has fallen on the wayside and why many of our songs speak about what we have lost.
Popular music might begin to express affection for things other than sexual objects, might expand its scope to include love of place, parents, friends, other species, and water. (I once had the good fortune to live for several weeks with the Hopi snake priest David Monogye. Well into his nineties when I knew him, he was a wry and sophisticated observer of mainstream culture. He used to tease me by observing, "We Hopis have lots of songs about water because it's so rare and precious in the desert. I notice that your people sing about love all the time. Is that because it's so rare for your people?")
The Hopis, if you're asking the same question, are a tribe of indigenous Native Americans living in Northeastern Arizona. And, yes, I was struck by this brilliant observation from an otherwise impartial outsider.
That's because it rings true to what we see today. Love has become scarce and this isn't strictly an American phenomenon. In a world increasingly plagued by broken families and utilitarian relationships, it is so easy to see why love has fallen on the wayside and why many of our songs speak about what we have lost.
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