Summer of Smooth Sailing

My summer was excellent.

Today i have considered the elements of life

Art: A Conversation

Tonight, after watching Unbreakable, which I found to be an incredible film, I was considering what it would be like to work in the movie industry, or rather to be involved in the film making process, Hollywood or not. I noticed how many people are involved in this process, how many people it takes to make one film. I began comparing it to life and to jobs in the world in general. I started to think that film making is really a good analogy for life. First off, think of God as creator of the world and all characters in it and everything being under his direction and final say. Compare this description to that of a film director and producer and the creation of a well created film. Each person has an important role and job they will complete. Another way to look at it is to see art as a way of pulling people together for one cause, uniting people. Theater and music groups such as a symphony act in the same manner. Everyone plays a very specific role for a specific purpose. Perhaps that is the problem I have with other jobs which I view to be meaningless in the sense that they don't relate to other jobs, there is no “whole” which these particular jobs serve a purpose for and that is why they don't have a good place in the world. Each person needs a specific place. I want to work somewhere where this is a reality, where jobs have a larger goal, where no person's job seems meaningless or unimportant, or bad, a place where everyone has a job that is equally important. By saying a person's job is equally important I mean in the sense that the movie is what people are all working for, although some people working may have a more lead role in the production, if the man who does the catering is asked what he does and he says I do catering for this film no one will say “oh man that's a bad job”, he will get respect for what he does. I feel like only art related fields offer this kind of job. Everyone will be appreciated and everyone will feel they are a part of something big. The world used to be run this way. In traditions of government and non government work, there wasn't the chaos or fear of losing control well known today in these same realms. People worked together just because. They weren't trying to control the world around them, they accepted it and tried to fulfill their particular role in it. No questions asked. Everyone did what they were told, knowing that the final word came from God, not from them. Their gaze was on the skies, not on the filthiness they saw around them. They had hope in their ability to do well and the ability of God to perfect and correct things whenever he so desired. People in the world today look to politics and science as their savior, the God who will salvage them from the wreckage of life on earth. People have faith in institutions to correct people and things, to straighten and clean things up. The good thing about politics is that it makes people feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. But, the bigger than themselves is not God, so it is still finite and full of holes and errors. Thus, people end up feeling disappointed no matter who wins an election and no matter how many wrongs have been righted. Politics also divides, art never divides. Instead of having more politics I think art should play a major role in our lives, not just in the business or private sector. The more people work on art projects together, the better off people will be, the more hopeful and positive people will be. Art today is not seen as a necessity. The world looks to science and government and military to solve their most pressing needs without stopping to think that bad things happen to people no matter whether you have medicine, democracy, or weapons of defense. Science government and military all are forms of power used to try to control the world around us. Sure, that may seem right or like the way to address problems in the world, but if bad things happen anyway, why focus all that power on the negative? Why not spend one's life giving to people not taking away from people? Art gives. Art is one of those things that is non biased. It isn't powerful in the controlling kind of way, but it has a power of its own. Can you imagine a world where art played a bigger role than politics or science? It seems crazy to think of, perhaps irreverent even. But its not. In fact, I would argue that that is the way the world used to be “run”. Not by only guys in big suits and people in lab coats, but by music halls and church choirs. Today we still believe, and falsely at that, that we can change the world, that we can make this world a better place through our guns and brains and politics. Knowledge is viewed not for knowledge's own sake but a means to be used for the purpose of making something to better the world, to be made for a specific purpose or end. While the intentions seem really good, this kind of knowledge always goes with power and control. This leaves the human feeling that they are in charge of the world, or they can fix things. It also leaves a lot of people feeling helpless and fearful. The truth is, we would be better off focusing are energies not on the crises themselves, but on the art that comes out of those crises. This is how we can help people, by showing them we have been through the same pains, we have experienced similar joys, we have been awakened by an epiphany that changed our lives and once in art form, can change their lives too. So today, all I want to say is that this is my epiphany. Change the world through art because it is your engagement and interaction with the world around you, but not just the world around you but your specific experience of that world on YOU as a unique individual. No one can truly understand how you feel until you show them through art. Other things in life don't give us hope, they may bring us together as a country like war or a strike do, but they always, always focus on the bad or negative. This is what media does, what politics do. Do we need that? What can feed the human spirit better than to be brought together by a mutual desire to create something that is a profound expression of the human experience? What better way to change lives than to awaken people out of despair and despondency? Art can do this. Want to save someone's life? Sometimes the physical body is not the most important thing in need of salvation, the human spirit is and the human spirit is what is at stake today. Eternal salvation God has, but humans still have one hundred years of their lives on earth that still need saving. The reason that religion and churches are cold and dead today is because they lack art. The people who “run” churches are politicians and scientists, not artists.