The Project - Day 21 & 22

Lately I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking about what I’ve done with my life for the first forty years and what I’d like to do for the next forty. Most of my life has spent pursuing independent artistic objectives but for some time now I’ve been trying to think of a way to take what I love and translate it into something more stable, something less self-serving. This is especially true now that I have a family and I need to help support them. It isn’t that I am unable to work. I’ve worked most of my life and if nothing else, I know how to knuckle under and do what needs to be done when the rubber meets the road. At my age though, there are two things that get wearisome--milk crates that double as furniture and working from job to job just to get paid.

Most of my life has been spent working on my skills in the performing arts, often paying with my skills in the language arts. Justification has never been an issue, the intrinsic value in music, drama, words, art, these have been internalized my entire life and have guided my choices. However, now I find I need to clarify these values in a world that is losing it’s grip on valuing the cultural as anything beyond extracurricular.

I would like to teach. I would like to teach words, music, art, the things that touch the soul and are not quantifiable. I know I can teach these things and I know it is important to teach these things. I know that the art of ideas and the art of words are completely intertwined and that a life of the imagination is necessarily a life of communication. The products of the imagination only live if they are communicated. (This is perhaps an ironic argument coming from someone who writes a blog that is not intended to be read.)

So this is my increasing fascination, the intersection between art and language, particularly the performing arts. How do these disciplines relate to each other and to the culture of education? Why is it important to worry about words and art--what do they offer beyond classes in science, math, and the ubiquitous “media” that is replacing the world formerly inhabited by words and ideas?

I believe it can be boiled down to three areas of value that are uniquely shaped in the creative and literary arts. These are discipline, culture and self.

Discipline is perhaps not the first thing one thinks of when contemplating education in the creative arts, but it is in fact the foundation of any studies in this realm. We learn grammar in order to write, we learn theory in order to compose or perform, we learn the discipline of the body and mind to recreate characters on stage. More than any other subject, discipline, self-discipline is required to create and recreate art. While some strictures are superficial and external, like the form of a sonnet or a Stanislavskian exercise, with practice, the external becomes internal. While “practice makes perfect” is a cliche, it comes from the understanding that with discipline comes excellence.

Culture, while it can be studied in a history class or other environment is only experienced through the arts and writing of that culture. Reading about the Holocaust in a history book is an entirely different experience from learning music written in a Jewish ghetto or reading the poems written by the children of Terezin. You can discuss the significance of Shakespeare, but until you have been on your feet, acting the character of Mercutio, the connection is merely academic and seldom transforming.

The concept of self is slightly more involved. Initially I was thinking of self esteem, self discipline, self respect and so forth. However, one can gain self respect from learning to excel in any number of disciplines. I believe that when it comes to the arts, development of “self” goes beyond esteem or discipline. Literature, writing, music, drama, painting, these are all gateways into our internal life. We need to raise up the next generation not just with the technology and knowledge to move into the future, but also with the spirit and imagination to face the things we cannot yet imagine. Inspiration leads to inspiration, or so we hope.

Just some initial thoughts, more to come, I think.