Writing about Chado

My topic for my end of the semester presentation is Chado (Japanese Tea Ceremony).
A draft is due on Wednesday.

I have a personal attachment to the art because my grandmother teaches it from her home in America. In fact, I grew up practicing the tea ceremony for what feels like forever. In retrospect, it was was probably only 2-3 times a month during the peak years of age 6-12. These years I felt like I was not allowed to leave unless my brother, sister and I all performed the ceremony at least once.

When I think of the tea ceremony, my immediate reaction is: "this will only take 20 min." I know, I need to have more reverence for the art. Part of the problem is that I don't really know what it is supposed mean to me. I learned it in this cultural vacuum. What the tea ceremony means to the outside world is somewhat of a blur to me.

This is why I want to do my presentation on the subject. Books written on the subject emphasize the spiritual quality and the wabi sabi aspect of the art. I am skeptical about accepting that everyone does it for the art. What I want to discover is that there is more to it, like social status and how it must survive as a business as much as an art.

If I find out that I am being too pessimistic about the art, then I ask: What is the relevance of this art for arts sake in ANYBODY's life? And if it can only be relevant to the idle few, then what is it really worth? What are we propping up? The question is not so much "of what use is chado", but more like "how is it used". "As art for arts sake" is a suckie answer.

I am pessimistic about it.
call it a phase.