From today's Observer in the Uk, comes a piece that could have been written by someone eavesdropping on our Forum discussions:

Great Music - Some Basic Questions "We need to wake up to the fact that people are now asking basic questions. Why are we musical? Why did people write symphonies? Why do we have the string quartet? They seem child-like, these questions, but they're there to provide us with the opportunity to enthuse and explain and demonstrate the answers we first stumbled upon in our musical journey and which encouraged us to make that journey in the first place. Figure out our answers to those questions, and it will help us tackle some more simple, yet more terrifying, questions: why should the state spend money on the arts, why do we have opera and why is it so expensive, why should we have so many orchestras in London?" The Observer (UK) 05/14/06

We aren't the only ones to be pondering how what they love will have to adapt to survive. These discussions are going on everywhere.