february 1st, 2010

boats - ktinka

"there is no place for apathy in art."

these were words spoken by my choir conductor today. She wanted to encourage us, she wanted to challenge us to be responsive, to really think about what we do as artists -- as creator and as audience.

music is not made by apathy. Art is not made by apathy. Apathy really just does nothing.

she pinched her fingers together, leaving about a centimetre's space in between them, talking about how apathy is really this much before death. This makes sense, considering the Greek etymology of the word means "freedom from suffering."


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in his newest book Donald Miller talks about the remarkableness of life. He talks about how in his high school days he would have moments where he would suddenly realize that he was alive and human. He talks about that feeling where you look around and you see everything around you, where you really notice it, where you feel and where you are alive.

this is the good stuff, though! ol' Donnie talks about the fact that life is staggering, and we are used to it.

this is what he writes:

"We get robbed of the glory of life because we aren't capable of remembering how we got here. When you are born, you wake slowly to everything.

Your brain doesn't stop growing until you turn twenty-six, so from birth to twenty-six, God is slowly turning the lights on, and you're groggy and pointing at things saying circle and blue and car and then sex and job and health care. The experience is so slow you could easily come to believe life isn't that big of a deal, that life isn't staggering.

What I'm saying is I think life is staggering and we're just used to it. We all are like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we're given--it's just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral."


man, that convicts me.


the beauty of it is that acknowledging the brilliance of life, and of art, brings an responsibility inherent in that acknowledgment.

I mean, what kind of sacrifice do we live?

apathy is just too easy! Let's live, knowing the remarkableness of life!
Let us not be numb! Let us be alive!