thanks for the tip on the keyboards that might be a worthwhile thing to explore at present my grandchild is only 18 months old so even now her acquisition of two languages is quite impressive. she shows a deep interest in music and sound so may well be interested in exploring that further. I'll check it out. on the art lessons - not yet but she draws (scribbles) incessantly and when i am with her it is one of the things we work at. I imagine that she will explore all those different things in more depth. i pulled out my violin the other day and let her draw the bow over the strings. bit tricky but interesting. language, music and conceptual thinking are all closely related - supposedly maths as well. her heritage draws on a rich tapestry of art, science, music and culture.
which brings us to the other matter. there was a song once about a big melting pot of people. somewhere inside me i think that a whole lot more intermarriage across cultures and races might do the world a lot of good. most of the bitterness stems from an insane need we seem to have to find "others" . we see otherness not sameness. over the years i have hosted hundreds of students and foreign visitors in my home. i am of no doubt that we have more sameness than otherness and when we focus on not trying to find wrong or fault in others we are happier for it. when we love we gain love (for the most part) If we make love conditional, kindness conditional or focus on difference or proving history wrong or someone wrong we set up a cycle of retribution that can last for generations until someone calls a halt to it.
in the case of the jewish, islam or christian mess (for that is what it is) and now the communist bit added in we have not a hope while we go about fomenting trouble. had Unz promoted solutions rather than revisions i might have been more interested. he doesn't so I'm not.
