After reading Rhys Southans text, “Is Art a Waste of Time?” I came across a couple points that stuck out to me. One point tied together with two different statements is, “They’re more interested in how we could use art to reduce the suffering of humans, animals, and future beings,” which relates back to the statement of, “It would be great if the arts and humanities were hugely beneficial to the world, because they tend to be personally satisfying.” Both these two statements reflect how art is believed to only help the person creating the art, rather than helping the world that we live in. This text has a focus point of wanting to help and cure human lives and suffering and diseases. The last quote pretty much claims that art is actually a waste of time. Personally, I would have to say otherwise. My thoughts are supported with this first quote. Certain types of art can be a stress reliever as it soothes the mind. Also, it has been know that playing music can calm a dog down. I also believe, that art can play a key factor in reducing a mental illness. It doesn’t matter what type, but when a person invests their time into something that they enjoy, amazing work can come out of it, that is why art can be “personally satisfying.” Furthermore, another point that stuck out to me was, “By definition, most artists are mediocre, and their art doesn’t really please many people, if any” and “Everyone can be doing more than they currently are.” This first quote made me first think, many artists who sing and write music don’t make songs that are relevant, some are random and some pander. Yet, music is good for the soul. It can transform and change a person’s mood instantly. The last quote stuck out to me a lot. It made me wonder what I could be doing in my life that could change to better the world around me. My thoughts in the margins were that this text focuses on curing the world from the things people are dying from. A few thoughts that came out of it were, people who make lots of money need to contribute it to the world more, people are being self absorbed, and people need to work and make more of an effort.