Fool’s Day

I never got into the April Fool's jokes. Never in my life. I watched others get fooled, and a few times someone tried to do me, too. I found it stupid. Dumb. To me the joke was on the doer. He is/was the fool.

Today we see this turnaround frequently. Only it is on the news. Every day. Need some examples? Here are a few/

Indiana Religious Freedom Law: it allows all businesses to discriminate against anyone they feel is protected for religious reasons. Under the law it is OK to discriminate against gay persons or people perceived to be gay. If you feel unmarried people are not protected by your religious beliefs, you can discriminate against them, too. Same for anyone you feel is identified in the Bible. So I guess football players can be discriminated against, you know the Leviticus rule about touching pigskin. Fashion designers make things from different cloths, so they would be unprotected (Leviticus, again!). The list is long on what the Bible via the books of Leviticus and Romans mark as no-no’s.  Adulterers, working on the Sabbath, eaters or fishers of shrimp and other shell fish, among some of the hated ones. In Indiana you can discriminate against these people.

Just think. You have a Bible but not a divinity degree from seminary; you don’t know what the Bible means or how the passage came to be, so you can’t possibly know how to interpret the passage properly. But you can read and the words say something you think they mean, so you act accordingly. The trouble is, you don’t know and are acting in bad faith and out of ignorance.

There is a reason the Bible is not the rule book for America. Separation of church and state is a good thing and for very sound reasons. We have laws to guide us; not the Bible. That’s not a reflection on the Bible; it is rather a reflection that speakers of the Bible need to have proper credentials to understand it and follow it. And followers are self selected; you want to follow it, you are perfectly free to do so. Just don’t hurt someone else because of your beliefs and actions. That would be a no-no. And that’s in the Bible, too. So, tread carefully.

Else the world has another fool. Just in time for April 1st!

Another foolish thing to look at. The underfunding of art programs in public schools. Music, drawing, poetry, drama – you name an artistic venture in public school and you will find a struggle to keep those programs going. Budgeters think school athletics are more important than art. These people need to go back to the experts in education. Those professionals will demonstrate how students learn in multi dimensions through art. Music is both physics, math and art. Sound waves are physics. Math relates to tempo, timing of individual notes, and the progressions of chords, harmonies and other tonal management by way of math theory. Of course what the music involves emotionally gets at the heart of the art.

Drawing as well pulls on the physics of color, eye sight and perception of scenes, dimensions, and the emotional draw of the subject matter. Sculpting is drawing in three dimensions, but oh so much more. We feel through sight and texture. We frame ideas in 360-degree dimensionality. We discover ideas wherever they are and shapes, colors and artistic expression helps those ideas come to life.

Also with drama – wherein students pretend to be another person responding to a pretend set of circumstances. The doing of this role playing teaches us about human nature and our very own nature. How do we see anyone else other than through our eyes? And feelings? And of course the script written by another set of eyes and brain. Drama is a deep teaching tool. And it is fun. It is entertainment. But with purpose and outcome.

Art is the expression of the inner soul or person. Art allows us to explore and express complex matters. Art stretches our sensibilities and understanding of the crazy world enveloping each of us. Art is a vital ‘language’ of life we all need to learn.

To remove art funding in education is foolishness personified. Better to eliminate some athletics to preserve art funding. Athletics are important, too, but there are so many ways to access athletics throughout society. Not so art.

On this April Fool’s day, think of more serious matters and keep that focus long enough to commit to making a difference where it will make the most good. If enough of us do this one simple act, the fools may actually disappear one day.

Oh wait! We still have elections. Foolishness still has staying power after all.

April 1, 2015