I support the arts because buried somewhere deep inside me is a drive to be more than I am. Any lack of talent on my part is vindicated by the check I write to some worthy organization. (It always amazes me how powerful the words: “pay to the order of” are: Immediately, I am well thought of!) But deep inside all of us there is a force that seeks to be answered. We might be accountants, doctors, carpenters, or teachers but there remains another reason to call life good.
Recently, Nina Totenberg’s father, Roman Totenberg died at age 101. (Ms. Totenberg is a news commentator for NPR.) Her father was a great musician, touring widely throughout Europe and the United States. Originally, he came from impoverished circumstances in Russia, even surviving a concentration camp. He came to New York City to teach the violin. When word went out that he was dying, his friends and students gathered in his apartment and some played their instruments at his bedside. He was still teaching until just an hour before his last breath:
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