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Excerpts

"Commonplaces never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative...We find that it is not a new scene which is needed, but a new viewpoint." Norman Rockwell made that statement more than seventy years ago, but the point he made then is still relevant today -- maybe even more so.

One of the most important lessons I've learned from Rockwell and his work is that life isn't always about moving to new places to find new things. And it isn't about having the biggest and the best and the most. Life -- real life -- is about looking at, appreciating, and embracing the simple things that are right in front of us. Rockwell was a man who made it his mission to celebrate the ordinary. And although he was immensely popular among the American people, his work was often dismissed by critics who deemed his work old-fashioned and too idealistic, or sentimental and overly nostalgic. He was accused of creating moments that didn't exist or -- as one critic alleged -- of "creating an America that never was and never will be."

Text copyright © 2008 by Kevin Rivoli