What do you believe is a lost art?

Wearing hats. I really enjoy wearing hats, but since I don’t go to church, I find little opportunity to wear them. Suggestions welcome.
The Brits seem to have much more of a hat sense than in the states. When do you wear them??

@Sunny2 You and I are living in tandem, I swear! I love hats! I have a taste for very expensive Panama hats actually, and I literally ordered a new one yesterday. I already own 6, but 2 are wearing out. I wear one every chance I get.

One nice accouterments for hats in Hawai`i are traditional Hawai`ian feather hatbands. I have 5 of those.

Oh, how I love pretty things! Especially hats with feather hatbands.

Hawaii is a great place to wear hats; so much sun. And color is blooming everywhere and on most clothing. I loved being there.

2D gaming, but more for the technical issues, such as off the ledge stepping, rather than the style. I’m pretty sure modern 2D gaming has fixed most of that kind of stuff. I thought it was awesome. Can it be art if you can’t actually see it, and if it wasn’t intentional?

Calligraphy.

Civility. If not totally dead, certainly comotose.

A sense of community and belief in government
Slowing down

I was going to say conversation, but since you did, Jake, I’ll say that I mourn the loss of letter writing, Letters took time. You had to think about what you wrote. I used to exchange 30 page letters with a couple of friends. Now we barely even email. Everything is so much shorter. People think in Twitter bites.

@9doomedtodie I’d say basic penmanship, not even to the level of Calligraphy. And spelling.

When I first saw the question, my initial reaction was like @Hawaii_Jake ‘s, conversation.

Art is a lost art.

I’m so tired of seeing something like two cans and a stick glued together….being called art.
Art may be in the eye of the beholder but, really, some of this modern art out there is just modern crap.

Don’t we all sound like a bunch of old farts? I’ll bet our parents said the same things!

Whistling, when I was a kid loads of folks, usually old men, would whistle like a fucking kettle, proper complex tunes & everything. They were either extremely bored or thought they were birds, you never hear any whistlers now, aside from fat arsed builders flirting with women who happen to pass by…that’s just crass though.

The “Mona Lisa” that I claimed on the insurance report for a burglary- they’re never gonna it. ;-o

@Plucky You should see what they just put up outside my office window. Took the only roundabout in all of Downtown, and instead of, say, a fountain, and some tables where we can sit and enjoy the sun on our lunch breaks, they put this ugly piece of crap there, instead.

Bear in mind this thing had already been REMOVED from the Downtown area because it’s a fucking eyesore and no one wanted to look at it. But no, it was donated to the city and they couldn’t POSSIBLY allow such an awesome free gift to go to the scrap heap. Much better to spend a gagillion dollars rebuilding it in an otherwise perfectly good roundabout.

Brewing tea fresh from leaves.

Polishing shoes.

Playing the harmonic, comb, washboard and stringed broom stick.

Analysis. Analytical thought.

People in general listen but do not analyze. They accept things unquestioningly.

Leather-crafting like making tooled saddles and southwestern leather accessories, like this saddle.

Style, politeness, respect for elders and patriotism.

Canning or preserving food.

Humility. Human kind think they are the masters of the universe. We’re destroying Mother Earth. Plus arrogance is very popular. I’m all for confidence, but people must realize they are not the masters of the universe.

I also agree that art itself is a lost art. Not only visual art, but all kinds of art.

I was going to say “asking questions on Fluther” but here have been some interesting ones in the last few days.

Making things by hand, like lace, candles, broomsticks. I was so worried about it I purchased a large book that shows everything from making wagon wheels to homemade soaps, it’s pretty cool.

Dude, making wagon wheels? That’s awesome, I want a book like that.

@Symbeline Seriously. I’ll try to write down the title tonight and let you know.

@Seek_Kolinahr Omg, that’s exactly what I mean…just horrible!

Common Sense.

Wearing clothes, instead of pajamas, when you go out in public.

Jake, my answer is someone like yours and somewhat like @marinelife . The lost art is paying attention to what others are trying to communicate. That is fundamental to spoken and written communication.

Patience.

I can think of 4 “Arts.” Taking ones time and ensuring quality, working through relationships, earning what you deserve, and the true soul of academe and discourse.

Time and quality are not valued anymore. Time has become choppy and short (tried to watch any 1970s movies or shows lately? They feel extremely slow compared to today’s shows). Gone With the Wind would be a 60 minute movie with today’s standards. Things have become so disposable and replaceable—people who are adept at handiwork tasks such as furniture-making, sewing, metalwork (and the ones listed above) are becoming less and less. “Art” itself has become less personal and more imitative.

Working through relationships—many people have adopted the idea that “if it doesn’t fit how my standards precisely, it’s not worth having.” or have a “my conditions take priority” attitude. The idea of compromise, give-and-take, concessions, tolerance for faults and the willingness to be flexible is looked down on by many people and self-help books. I think it leads to more loneliness and entitlement than people realize.

Which leads to “working for what you deserve.” So many people are saying “I deserve this, I deserve that,” without putting forth any work. Some will even cheat, cut corners, and toss others under the train to get ahead. I find this type of entitlement scary. Quotes like, “Work smarter, not harder,” can be very misleading. To overly entitled people, “smarter” means taking credit for others’ work or delegating to the point of not having to do anything, making someone else work harder. I’ve seen this happen too frequently, in my classroom, at work, in the community, in non-profit organizations. It’s not just here-and-there, it’s in many areas.

Academe has become ritualized, regimentalized and corporate run. Research is funded by corporates (making them biased), has become a numbers crunching game, professors are constricted by an increasing amount of protocol, and universities aren’t about discourse and exploration as much anymore. It’s really scary—if the universities aren’t about asking questions, analyzing and learning anymore, then what?

@linguaphile You reasoning is astute yet chilling in its implications.