People and Substance

Seeing the movie clips in class tuesday was a powerful experience. Not only did they stick in my mind and make me think, but they also challenged me to feel that part of me that is so human and that resonates with what the film was showing. I think a lot of the time I tend to suffocate my humanity so that I won't have to go through "awkward" experiences or uncomfortable events that tend to be socially strenuous....which is ironic because society is made up of people who all feel these things anyway....

For example, if some one is crying very hard, my instinctive response is to block out the obnoxious scene and try to keep focused on what is socially comfortable. This creates some very serious problems, especially if you take into account Jesus' command to "mourn with those who mourn". Loving people is a conscious decision, I have come to realize, and the loving thing to do for a person in mourning is to come to their level and focus on what they are dealing with - which a lot of the time means 'putting to death' our fear of what people would think of us.

Another thing that has been on my mind is the way that art works. When I think about the difference between good and bad art, the main issue revolves around how the substance of the art is communicated. When people focus too much on saying something through their art, like Professor Leeper said, you come away from it with nothing more than the message, like an advertising campaign with cliche slogans that only really make you want to change the channel and get to something substantial. Making good art, then, seems to be more of a challenge. Almost like riding a bike.....you can't really tell someone how to ride a bike. They have to experience it in order to be able to do it.