Art can't change the world

This site is called “STORIES TALK GOOD” and is pretty much all summed up in the title. Because stories are art, and art is just another way of saying something. It is speaking that can get much more of your heart into the conversation and speak rather directly to the heart of another — to me, that’s what makes it essential.

But art can’t change the world. That’s just not something it can’t do — at least not in our feeble hands. How do I know this? Because it hasn’t. Cave paintings in prehistory show people killing people, and we’re still killing people. The oldest recorded story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, carries the theme of the deep grief of losing a friend, and we’re still grieving friends. The Book of Job is about a man pushed beyond the brink of suffering, and well, that’s still our story.

So how is art essential if it can’t solve our biggest problems?

The problem is not with art; the problem is with us. We’re just going to always need fixing. That’s not an invitation to give up, but it’s a helpful reminder.

Now, where does art fit? Or for those of us who want to run for the hills at the mention of that word art because what sorta high-falutin, white wine sippin’ city boy are ya? Replace art with movies, books, stories, music, things that are made for others to enjoy.

I have found art can’t meet me where I am until I get out of the way. I usually approach art expecting it to conform to my standards, to affirm my beliefs, and to “speak to me.” For it to have value. And I fail to see how self-centered this is. But the main result is that I never truly come to love art, I only love myself.

We have to lose ourselves to find ourselves. It sounds backward, but that is the magic of art (and life). At first, it requires surrender to the paint strokes, sentences, and melodies of another, and then we can begin having a conversation.

Thankfully, some art takes care of this for us because it is more powerful than our egos — I hope you’ve had the experience of being arrested like this.

I remember the first time I saw a cathedral. Overwhelmed does not capture how I felt because it implies I was still aware of myself in the moment — I was not. But after a moment of awe, I felt the breath in my lungs and remembered I was a living person. Strangely enough, from my encounter with beauty, I felt even more so. And once back to myself from this sweeping away, I found I was different afterward. For a man who struggles to feel in a worship service, the cathedral opened chambers of my heart that would have been silent before God in any other building.

I’m not saying all art is valuable — some people believe lies and are happy to vent them onto us. Surrender is a precious thing to give away, and art will be flawed. None of us has the perfect grasp of the truth, and anyone who says they do is selling something or running for office.

But when “good art” happens, I hope the result is an enlargement of the heart as it makes room for more than just our fragile sense of self.

And people pursuing that might just change the world.

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