Recently I was reading the classical biographical novel of Vincent Van Gogh, Lust for Life by Irving Stone, and I was struck by a conversation between the young Van Gogh and his tutor concerning Rembrandt. Noting that he had died in poverty and disgrace (even though he later became one of the world’s greatest artists), the two men discussed his resilience against adversity and the fact that he did not die an unhappy man.

"He had expressed himself fully and he knew the worth of what he had done," declares the tutor. "What the world thought made little difference, Rembrandt had to paint. Whether he painted well or badly didn’t matter; painting was the stuff that held him together as a man."

As I pondered this observation, I thought how this was precisely the explanation underlying my life as a musician, performing and writing songs for so many years. Music was "the stuff" that held me together; it justified my life through the ups and down of living the life of an artist, especially when other opportunities had presented themselves.

The tutor continues, "The chief value of art, Vincent, lies in the expression it gives to the artist. Even if his work had been worthless, he would have been a thousand times more successful than if he had put down his desire and become the richest merchant in Amsterdam."

As we head into the New Year, I ask you the reader to think about this: Embrace the arts and the artists who produce it. Let’s build each other up and attempt to understand this simple truth about Rembrandt and, perhaps, ourselves. Like the great artists before us, the quality of our perseverance and the loyalty to our ideas is what is important.