Keats had a point

 I went to an excellent lecture today about Japonisme, the influence of Japan on Europe from the second half of the 19th century onwards.  I already knew a fair bit on the subject, but this lecturer went beyond paintings to textiles, clothes, ceramics, furnishings and so on, which was really interesting.  She also went beyond the usual Impressionists and Post-Impressionists to the early years of the 20th century.  

There are things I used to enthuse about that I don't any more.  I do no gardening at all, for instance.  I haven't even bothered to plant up the tubs outside the house.  Bare earth or what has survived from last year and I don't care.  I'm sad that I don't care, but I can't pretend to.  My love of art, in all forms, has increased, however.  It's most of what I care about - obviously, not including people.  I want to go to art galleries, concerts, see and hear about beauty.  I don't mind at all if it's not, initially, my idea of beauty.  You can appreciate something that you don't necessarily like.  Only by seeing it or listening to it enough times to start to understand it, can you know if you do like it - or if it's any good.  Plenty of fashionable emperors are not wearing any clothes, but some of them are, resplendently.