With today’s death of Leonard Nimoy, I, along with everyone else have suddenly been thrust back into reflecting on the career of a great actor and the iconic character he brought to life, Spock.

It is without a doubt that it takes the death of an artist to appreciate the art he or she created. Of course we experience their genius as they live it, as was the case with Robin Williams, Michael Jackson and many others. But I don’t truly believe we understand the scope until the artist is no longer with us.

Unfortunately society has evolved to a place where the definition of art has been blurred. We spend hours watching people make idiots of themselves on reality TV, we idolize these idiots and extend their 15 minutes of fame to decades. The Kardashians are a great example. There is no doubt that some, if not all have at least one talent (Sorry Kim, a big ass isn’t a talent), but that’s not why they are idolized. People idolize and watch them because deep down they know that at some point they will crash and burn, they just want to be around to witness it.

A celebrity is not an artist. An artist however, can be a star. So I encourage you to peel your eyes away from watching which actress, whose career isn’t going where she wants, might get a rose. Instead, support the actress by going to a play, watching an independent film. Support the arts. So that 50 years from now we can look back and appreciate the art their long life created instead of looking back and seeing a clip show of Honey BooBoo’s greatest hits.

May the arts live long and prosper