The last couple of days have been taken up with travel back and forth to the family homestead in Fowler, a farming community in central California, just to the south of Fresno. Mother and Dad are fine, thanks for asking.
Although my trip was dutiful, the 7 hour transit time is made pleasantly productive as it exactly coincides with the length of a taped Wayne Dyer seminar derived from his book There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. I’ve lost count of the numbers of times I’ve listened to these tapes over the course of the last 8 or 9 years, and always find them refreshing in the rehearing. Certainly coming back to the galleries after having heard Dr. Dyer is the reminder that, spiritually, what one puts out one receives in return, and that’s what all of us in the trade in any of the decorative and fine arts, times being the way they are, tend to forget. For us, we are in this business because we love it, and love the items we handle- and love it when the purchaser is someone to whom our pieces speak.
And, ultimately that’s what’s fulfilling about this business and, and, I’ll venture to say, makes a good dealer a better dealer- perhaps not as much in money but in largeness of spirit- that he has a love of what he does, and it is that love that sells a piece, possibly as much as the piece itself.
Of course, we have bills to pay just like everyone else, and our pieces do need to make the occasional one way trip out the front door to pay for our daily crust. But I have to tell you, although we may not be possessed of enough spiritual swag to change everyone’s attitude from negative to positive, we nevertheless, sometime with Wayne Dyer’s reminding us, love what we sell and what we do.