By these symbols we connect one to the other. The notches in our spirits clasp to each other in our search to find expression either of that which has wounded us or of that which has brought us great joy. And so we sing along with another's sorrow or nod our heads in tearful agreement. No longer alone, we traipse across our collective nostalgia or bungle joyfully into the future we are creating. With melodies marking our milestones, with photographs immortalizing passion, with words etching memories into our spirits, we lean into each other; I, rhyming my sorrow with your joy, you,carving your dreams across my optimism.
Like a collective fireplace to huddle around, the arts beckon us to join soul to soul, culture to culture. Complete strangers have wondered together over the majestic art of Michelangelo, the tender brush strokes of Monet or the amazing use of color of Picasso. Diverse crowds have cheered teary-eyed at Les Miserables or chuckled at Gary Larson's Far Side Exhibit in San Francisco. Theatres find complete strangers shaking heads at each other after an amazing drama has captured each of their hearts. The arts do stir in us the commonness of our humanity.
It is in the arts that we can marvel the most at what is God's creative stamp on each of us and on all of us. He loves creativity so much He stamped all of nature with Himself. He then took us and declared us to be like Him. And so we find ourselves dreaming ideas and then sculpting them to reality. Today, again as when the writer of Genesis described Creation, He often says to His angels about our art, "You know, this really is good."