All You Gotta Do is Hold Him and Squeeze Him and Kiss Him and Love Him

The death of Prince was huge and a shock to the system.  A mass internet and communal mourning. Something new to me although I just experienced it with Bowie.  What is puzzling me is how valuable true musicians are to our society and what a huge imbalance we have right now with showing our ongoing respect and appreciation.  I knew that was true but a bit surprised to see so many people express the same sentiments on his passing.  I mean to feel it so strongly.  It made me think about how unbalanced our treatment of musicians is as compared to say a sports athlete.   Music and musicians are still treated like optional, nonessential entities.  That is so untrue for most thinking caring people.  No matter the genre, music is incredibly important to your growing, exploring, celebrating, mourning and even a perfect outlet for anger and confusion, heartache and depression.  Gifted musicians should be fostered and nurtured and given access to tools and healthcare by our communities.

Very special artists that come with beauty, exceptional talent, heightened creativity, innovation, and the unique ability to touch a huge portion of the public or even ones that deeply move a smaller portion deserve not only our support, but our acknowledgment overall as a society that this is extremely positive, valuable and important.  It's been said by the greats that to get to these areas where it is safe and open to create, whether it exists in the universe or inside of their own heads, these folks have to visit hard places and the work involved is nothing less than that of a trained national athlete.  Perhaps even harder in ways because art is fickle and can't be conjured even with musical training.

And yes I will mourn Prince the man but my thoughts today are why do we wait for them to die to truly honor their work.  I'm not saying to idolize or praise the individual but to treat the work as a sacred thing, because it is.  Just as we have a place for classic paintings in museums, surely we can do better than just the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tonight I baked chicken thighs with a spicy dry rub and coupled it with a chunky guacamole over black rice simmered in a zesty lemony chicken broth.  I'm trying to induce flair with affordable everyday ingredients that don't take a lot of time but make the diner feel important and cherished.