Life Openings

So many challenges to face: financial, health, relationships, career, weather, questions of philosophy and religion…these are the things we work on day in and day out. How do we fare in these pursuits? Some good, some poor. Each, however, leaves us changed.

The reality of change pulls us consciously or not into a different life-space. It forms our thinking about countless things. It prepares us for other unknown encounters that will further change our lives.

We can’t really teach people these things, only how they can relate to the challenges and adapt to change in a healthy manner. Yes; that we can teach, but not the other.  The other is too specific and not open to learning processes that can be adapted to other moments in our life sure to occur.

Plato said this for the Ages:

“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”

Interesting he would settled on those ideas. In that day and age so little was known of the physical world, but like us, what we knew we felt was the bulk of all that was to be known!  Myopia aside, Plato focused on the arts as the trainer of choice of thinking, especially among children. The connection between emotion, intellect and the physical world is the stuff of music. And it is for Plato more important than the other disciplines. It is an opening to understanding the other disciplines.

I found this on the internet the other day, anonymous of course:

            “Music – the other non-addictive, mood-altering non-substance.

             Ask your Doctor if music is right for you. 

 Common side effects include but are not limited to uncontrolled head bobbing, toe tapping,  

 finger snapping, selective hearing impairment and persistent melody flashbacks.”

So music continues throughout all of life experiences – and the arts in general. We are humanized by music and art. We communicate by way of music and art. We are challenged and soothed by art and music. It shapes the way we perceive life. It helps us deal with life.

I say these things because so often we ignore music and art education. We take it for granted. We appreciate it each in our own way but we tend not to think it is a necessary part of education. It is a ‘soft’ part of life. It is not a hard producer of economic well-being of a family. It is a frill, an interest we dabble with.

Yet observe the earphones prominent in our society of today. In the classroom, on public transportation, even in private cars. Earphones. Everywhere. And music is the companion of elevator rides, hotel lobbies, store aisles and restaurants. Music is played nearly everywhere. Doubt that? Try the hospital operating room! The surgical staff commonly listen to music, often blaring. It focuses their skills and attention on repairing your tissues!

Art is the great humanizer of life on this planet. It is not soft. It is vital.

As usual, Ann Landers had something to say about parenting that I think would be useful here:

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.”

So the circle is complete. Openings to understanding life from childhood on is aided by our relationship with art and music and an appreciation of our surroundings. Learning to grow our appreciation for these things helps us develop toward fully functioning human beings.

Next time you’re asked to pay school taxes or support local arts organizations, please remember the role of arts in our society.  I’m just saying…

April 4, 2014