When I went back, I majored in business (my minor previously) because I couldn’t find an arts program that was conducive to my situation. I was initially majoring in arts, but had to drop out of school for family reasons. I’m not saying the arts are the better choice, I’m just saying they’re not a lesser one. There are other promised blessings for those who follow Christ before the world, including the more than a hundredfold of the things of the earth that they sought, but those are just that – blessings made conditional on our not seeking those things to begin with. I seem to recall gospel statements about financial prosperity ranging from having “sufficient for our needs” to not having more than one change of clothing. Things the arts tend towards in some ways that other pursuits don’t as much. Financial security from a Gospel perspective isn’t about having nice cars, a big home with a separate home teaching room that no one goes into except once a month, and all the latest clothes from the current purveyor of stylish but modest apparel.Ĭollege seems like an ideal time to pursue the doctrine of forsaking the things of the world in order to lay up treasures in heaven, i.e. The truth is that most people trade off personal satisfaction against higher economic reward (or the hope of one) when they choose trades or fields of study and throughout their careers.Īs #1 said, this seems very materialistic to me, though I’m a member. Thinking of an undergraduate major as a sacrifice of one’s dreams and aspirations doesn’t sound like a recipe for professional success and personal happiness. Your average high councilor won’t be in a good position to make pronouncements from the pulpit about it.įinally, “selfish” is probably not a useful category to analyze the situation. Also, in the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences, and pre-professional fields. You can run into difficult employment prospects in the arts. Trying to pick out a major that leads to a lucrative or even stable career is surprisingly difficult. Students major in a crazy assortment of fields and then move onto professional careers of one kind or another. There’s a huge difference between “majoring in the arts” and “pursuing a career in the arts” in any case. The arts involve a lot of disciplines, including ones that are strongly career-oriented. I think the problematic parts of the statement are, “arts,” “major,”, “high council speaker,” and “selfish.” As if making money is the end-all, be-all standard by which to judge one’s chosen profession… Throwing them under the bus the way this guy has done shows an incredible lack of understanding of the value of the arts bring and also fails to acknowledge that the pursuit of money through more “responsible” career tracks can just as easily become a selfish exercise. Given that, I have a great respect for many artists who make sacrifices to follow their passion and share their gifts. I veered away from the arts because it didn’t fit with my own personal life goals – incompatible with how I wanted my family life to be, limited career options, etc. But still, I’m glad people like Mack Wilberg (to name an obvious example) decided to follow “selfish” pursuits, and I’d suspect so would this high counsellor if he stopped to think about how wrong-headed that attitude really is. That said, involvement in the arts, for some people (or in certain situations), can become and exercise in self-indulgence, which I have experienced and have little tolerance for. Given that, it might not surprise anyone that I take great exception to that attitude. I could have majored in the arts and have multiple members of my immediate and extended family who are in the arts. I’m very happy that the remarkable art and music teachers at my kids’ elementary school are not sitting behind a desk somewhere, pushing numbers around, selling their souls for $75,000 a year plus benefits. It does take a lot of talent and an unusual amount of dedication and many hours of practice every day to remain competitive in the field, but it is possible.Īnd then there are music and art instructors in the school - talk about being in a career that can have a positive, life-long impact on many lives. Is it possible to combine a career and an interest in the arts? Is music included in “the arts”? I know people who have very successful careers and are able to support their families in comfortable circumstances as musicians. In our culture, the top three things are supposed to be family, church, and work (in whatever order), so adding in art or music as an avocation can be particularly difficult since at some point one or more of the areas will suffer. I watched a documentary last night called “They Came to Play.” One of the competitors in the amateur piano competition mentioned that he had three things in his life: his career (eye surgeon), his family (wife and four kids), and his music.
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