Osama Bin Laden is dead. Or maybe he's alive. Or maybe he was killed years ago.
And the Royal Wedding was a glorious triumph of love. Or maybe it was unearned privilege paid for by the people who struggle to put bread on the table. Or maybe it was irrelevant.
And President Obama is American. Or maybe he's a terrorist. Or maybe he's a dancer on Broadway and owned by Freemasons.
The job of the artist isn't to judge the different opinions, it's to get inside of them. To feel them, to understand where they come from.
Why do some English people want the Royal's out? Why do some Americans have a big problem with the color of Obama's skin? Why are people so quick to assume the Osama Bin Laden assassination was anything apart from what we were told?
Your answers to these questions aren't meant to be factual, but you're meant to be able to feel them. Feel the part of you that believes everything you're told and -- feel the part of you that mistrusts authority every single time. Dig into who you are until you find the part of you that is judgemental, or has prejudice. What's underneath that? Do you have fears? Painful experiences?
We are all so similar, yet so different. But we don't just want our art to appeal to people who look and feel like us. It needs to reach further. But we all have limits. Everyone is liberal, to a point. Everyone is loving, until they're fearful. Everyone is carefree, until they wake up in the morning.
Hitler was evil. Osama Bin Laden too. But most people aren't, they're doing the best they can. They believe they're doing right. It's easy to get caught up in the circus of calling the other side dumb, or ignorant; but it's more productive to explore it on a deeper level. Explore the ways in which you are dumb and ignorant, and help it make your work richer.
I really do hope that one day a publishing company sees this blog and perhaps encourages you to make a publication of your blogs. I could happily read back over these many times. This is not meant to be an actual comparison, but if you ever did see Marley and me the Owen Wilson character who gets hired to keep an on going article in the paper about his dog well I hope you get my drift.
ReplyDelete..."maybe he's a dancer on Broadway and owned by Freemasons." !!! Great post--reminds me of what Ray Bradbury talked about in his Zen book. Hate something! Love something! And dare to say it. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -- what a lovely thing to say, thank you!
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