Who's To Say What Is Really Art? A comment from the archives that I came across totally accidentally. It was written in 2011 by Steven Halpern. "I'm a long-time student (and licensed instructor) of chanoyu ('Japanese tea ceremony'). Even among tea people there's no agreement on what chanoyu is: a polite accomplishment? A kind of meditation? A performance art? But for those who respond to it, cramming oneself into a tiny room with a few other like-minded people, drinking tea the consistency of applesauce, and discussing works of art that make no sense in Western terms is as soul-restoring as Angelico or Alvarez Bravo, even though it all vanishes when the tea gathering ends. So who's to say what is really art? Better to appreciate as much as possible, I say, than to limit oneself by setting up categories of better and worse (although the exercise can be thought-provoking)."