Life Changing Arts

There's a meme going around the Facebook. (A SIDE: I've recently been informed that the word 'meme' was coined by one Richard Dawkins, a man with few fans in my social circles. This does not compel me to use a different word.) The basic idea is to list the 15 music albums that 'changed your life.' Now, I like music, but I couldn't come close to listing 15 songs that have truly 'changed my life,' much less 15 whole albums. And it would seem a betrayal of reader interest for me to list 15 albums that I thought were 'pretty sweet.'

That said, I love the idea of admitting that our experience of art and media shapes who we are and how we relate to the world. I'm not just talking music, although that's a big part of it. I'm thinking changing the glasses we use to view the world through books, movies, music, paintings, theatrical performances, culinary experiences, etc. Things that somehow made the world a bigger place afterwards. What moves us and makes us think reveals a lot about who we really are.

Given the power of art in all these forms, I'd like to offer a list of 15 'media experiences' that really did 'change my life.' I'd also like to learn about similar experiences from the readers of this blog, so please feel free to post your own in the comments or link to your own blog entries on the subject. (A SIDE: I'm not a fan of arbitrary rules. Don't feel bound to list exactly 15 unless you find this constraint helpful in some way.)

In no particular order-

1. Putting On Airs (Album): This was the first music I ever spent my own money on, and my first expression of preference for a particular musical style (Irish traditional).

2. The Hunger for Significance by R.C. Sproul (Book): The Image of God actively enters my thoughts regarding every human relationship I have because of this book.

3. Thy Mercy My God (Song): This is the first song to ever truly drive me to tears. I had never really felt truth in my gut until I sang this song with Wade and the RUF team playing.

4. Spaghetti by Andrew Johnson (Culinary Arts): A little balsamic vinegar and rosemary opened my mind to one of my current favorite pasttimes. I love food.

5. The Chicago Tribune building (Architecture): Seeing the Tribune building dissappearing into the fog (or smog, I was never sure which it was) made me care about my physical environment for the first time.

6. Star Trek Deep Space Nine (TV Series): I always suspected that the world was not full of black hats and white hats, but with good and evil within the same people, warring with each other and each having wins and losses. But I believed it when I saw it portrayed in this show.

7. Grace Unknown by R.C. Sproul (Book): The simple sense of this book is the reason I am a reformed Presbyterian. That's pretty worldview shaping.

8. Genesis (Holy Book): I know it's kind of cheating to include a book of the Bible, but everything in my experience brings me back to thinking about what the world was made to be, why aren't the way they're supposed to be, and how God is making all things new again.

9. Prices and Information by W. Robert Reed (Book): This book convinced me that markets are as much a part of human nature as language. The logic of this book changed how I teach, study, and interpret the news.

10. She Must and Shall Go Free (Album): Jesus Christ loves his Church with a deep, burning passion that will not let her destroy herself. This album helped redefine love for me.

11. Josh Groban at the Ford Center (Concert): I had never experienced the mesmerizing power of a live musical performance before this. To be immersed in music is a good thing.

12. The Fellowship of the Ring (Movie): These characters were real to me before the movie, but Peter Jackson made them vivid and alive. This movie (and the others in the trilogy) didn't just capture my imagination, it expanded it.

13. Conspiracy Theory (Movie): As odd as it sounds, I was not interested in seeing this movie until I had a dream informing me it would be great. I pay attention to my dreams in part because this is one of my favorite movies of all time.

14. That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (Book): This book captures my beliefs about logic and human reason. It also captures why I think aliens, monsters, and magiks aren't as far fetched as many 'logical' people believe.

15. The Dark Knight Returns by Miller, Janson, and Varley (Comic Book): I had set aside superheroes since childhood until I picked this up. I realized that comic heroes could be art that tested our values and held a mirror to our humanity.

There you have it. My 15 life changing albums. And by albums I mean artistic experiences. Or something like that.

So I Had to Write a Scholarship Essay

Prompt: “Given the opportunity, support, and funding, what one thing would you do to make the world a better place?”

Making the world a better place is a lofty goal, though somewhat broad. It is a bit like making wishes: I could say I would end war, or that I would end hunger, or that I would establish a colony on the moon for the preservation of humanity. The difficulty in answering such broad questions is that it is easy to say “I would do this if…” It is quite another thing to say “I will do this because…” Yet the most accurate answer I can give to the question of what I would do is to say what I will do to make the world a better place: Conduct research, teach young minds, raise a family, and generally pursue my own calling.

I believe one of the greatest things I could do to improve the world is to expand the knowledge and understanding of how we, as human beings, relate to that world and to each other within that world. My own research involves economic growth and development. It is often the goal of many to relieve the poverty and hunger that characterizes the majority of humanity to this day. While this is a grand goal, it cannot be achieved unless we first understand why some have become rich while others have remained poor. There are a vast array of conflicting beliefs about why this is the case, and an equal number of corresponding remedies. Yet history teaches us that unless we know and understand the true nature of the disease, we likely prescribe a cure in vain. What the world needs to end hunger and poverty is research, and this is something we can do now.

Many also wish to end ignorance and fear in the world. These are not problems that can go away quickly or easily. Ignorance can only be combated by learning, and learning demands teaching. Not all teaching takes place in formal environments, but the University is a setting where learning can be nurtured and new lessons can be applied. As a University teacher I will have the opportunity to open young minds to logic and to reasoning and to explanations of the world they had not previously considered. What the world needs to end ignorance is teaching, and this is something we can do now.

Still others wish to put an end to war. In world of finite resources this seems an impossible task. Yet if our children can learn from us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to love our enemies, to value them as human beings even when we dislike or disagree with them, then war will never seem to them a solution. Our children will look at us to see whether these things are true. If I love my wife, my daughter will notice. What the world needs to end war is family, and this is something we can do now.

We all want people to have full lives, enjoyable lives, meaningful lives. For this to happen we should spend less time trying to discover what the world needs, and more time doing what each of us is meant to do. Howard Thurman said that “what the world needs is people who have come alive.” People come alive when they pursue their own callings, regardless of what the pursuit of wealth or ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ tells them to do. To live full lives we must do what we were made to do, and this is something we can do now.

It is not enough to say what we would do if only we had this or that. I do not believe we were made only to wish that things were different. I do not believe our high goals of what is good, and right, and just, should only be pursued if this happens first or those resources become available to us. We must find what we ought to do, and then find what we need to do it.