Please bear with me, I’m not sure how this will unfold, but it is something I’ve been pondering and stewing on for weeks. It started with The Double Rainbow guy. Who actually passed away this year. SUPER sad. Now I will confess I was on the side of those who were making fun of his obvious and tremendous exuberance. I simply couldn’t get to the fact where I would be THAT blown away by something so simple, and that I have actually seen quite a few times. Nevermind the fact that I cry at the drop of a hat and the total solar eclipse was one of the most spiritually moving experiences of my life. My cognitive dissonance was such that I could not understand how the two were the same. I’m thankful my self awareness now extends at least that far.

The next step was writing a poem, really more prose than anything about Mt. Rainier. I’ve always had a strange connection to it. I think probably many people from the PNW would say the same. But it made me feel all awkward when I would stare up lovingly at the glacier clad sides and FEEL something for an inanimate object. But she isn’t. There is SO much life there. It welt awkward and weird the day I wrote it. Even more so when I shared it with my group of guys. Like, who is going to listen to basically a love letter to a mountain and not ridicule the writer. No wonder I felt that way considering my own thoughts about Paul “Bear” Vasquez! Neverthesless I trudged on, read it, then awaited the inevitable laughter. Until it didn’t come.

Next phase came in the form of a weaving. It was all black, but something in the layers, the ordered chaos, the organized abstract quality spoke to my soul. It was a new awakening. The idea that there could be a tangible, spiritual, emotional element to things. Parts of my upbringing held me back. “So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator…” At this stage of life, I am not going to tell people who or how to worship. I believe God is much bigger than that. The relentless pursuit of truth will always end at truth. I don’t have to manage others views or perceptions of God. What I KNOW is that when I feel my soul react, I pay attention. There is something deep inside that simply moves and requires a response. I have come to believe that this is in reaction to art. TRUE art, which is creation.

I’ve been a creator most of my life. I have written, sung, danced (a little), written music, sewn, done crosstitch, on and on and on. I’ve never been overly impressed with my own creations. Still am not really. I’ve only ever created two or three things that I look back at and think THAT IS AMAZING. But for whatever reason, people have been drawn to my art, and that is something. So what is art? Truly, for me, it is creating something that has never been. Something original. Something that comes from an outpouring of your authentic self. What else would people want to connect to.

I never understood abstract art. Truly. It seems stuffy and pretentious. Same with wine, high end audio, and a myriad other things that have an artistic quality. Actually high end 2-Channel systems I get. Ask me about that if your curious, but a nice pair of Sonus Faber towers or maybe Daedalus are hopefully in my future. I digress. Where I’m headed with this, is I cannot define art for you, meaning I don’t know what will ignite your soul and speak to you on a spiritual level. Maybe it’s Tupac, but maybe it’s Brahms. Or maybe it isn’t music, but a really well decorated cake makes you do cartwheels, or maybe, just maybe, its the double rainbow that has been painted across the sky. If we spent more time curious about art, curious about what others see as art, and less time criticizing what we don’t understand, how much better would our world be? If we could simply stop and look in awe and wonder at the multitudinous forms of art all around us, I think, no, I KNOW that we would feel happier, more fulfilled, and at peace, and I sure could use more of that in my life. Especially this year.