Teaches Us How to Touch!

What does great art (for example, see previous post),  do for us?

Opens us up to other people's stories, other truths, other realities. Makes us see the world in new ways. Tells us things about the world we didn't know. Shows us how we are wrong about other people, other places and other times. Shows us that the world is bigger, richer, deeper, more varied and more complex, more contradictory, than we may have realized.

The best art (this can be true of any form of art - music, dance, poetry, theater, film, novel, painting, etc.), is vivid, layered, shows the contradictions of experience. Great art captures us; our imaginations, our hearts our heads. It opens us up to explore our own thoughts, feelings, memories, maybe in a new way. It deepens us, deepens our understanding, maybe changes us, yes, just by watching, listening, experiencing.

There is no strict formula. No rules. Great art can emerge from any quarter. There are always surprises, that's the beauty of it. Sometimes it's the least expected, the simple, the small, unassuming manifestations that can have universe-cracking consequences. Great art can be a flood, an earthquake, a star-burst, a total eclipse. A wave. A sign. A detour. A moment. A breath. A space. An opening. A conjuring, a vision, a spell, an incantation. Great art touches us, shows us, teaches us, how to touch, how to be human.