—a veritable necessity—because people have been working out how to live for a long

time. What they have produced is strange but also rich beyond comparison, so why
not
use it as a guide? Your vision will be grander and your plans more comprehensive.
You
will consider other people more intelligently and completely. You will take care of
yourself more effectively. You will understand the present more profoundly, rooted as
it
is in the past, and you will come to conclusions much more carefully. You will come to
treat the future, as well, as a more concrete reality (because you will have developed
some true sense of time) and be less likely to sacrifice it to impulsive pleasure. You
will
develop some depth, gravitas, and true thoughtfulness. You will speak more precisely,
and other people will become more likely to listen to and cooperate productively with
you, as you will with them. You will become more your own person, and less a dull
and
hapless tool of peer pressure, vogue, fad, and ideology.
Buy a piece of art. Find one that speaks to you and make the purchase. If it is a
genuine artistic production, it will invade your life and change it. A real piece of art is
a
window into the transcendent, and you need that in your life, because you are finite
and
limited and bounded by your ignorance. Unless you can make a connection to the
transcendent, you will not have the strength to prevail when the challenges of life
become daunting. You need to establish a link with what is beyond you, like a man
overboard in high seas requires a life preserver, and the invitation of beauty into your
life is one means by which that may be accomplished.
It is for such reasons that we need to understand the role of art, and stop thinking
about it as an option, or a luxury, or worse, an affectation. Art is the bedrock of
culture
itself. It is the foundation of the process by which we unite ourselves psychologically,
and come to establish productive peace with others. As it is said, “Man shall not live
by
bread alone” (Matthew 4:4). That is exactly right. We live by beauty. We live by
literature. We live by art. We cannot live without some connection to the divine—and
beauty is divine—because in its absence life is too short, too dismal, and too tragic.
And
we must be sharp and awake and prepared so that we can survive properly, and orient
the world properly, and not destroy things, including ourselves—and beauty can help
us
appreciate the wonder of Being and motivate us to seek gratitude when we might
otherwise be prone to destructive resentment.
MEMORY AND VISION
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the
destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.
—WILLIAM BLAKE, FROM “PROVERBS OF HELL,” The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
When I was a child, I knew the contours and details of all the houses in my immediate
neighborhood. I knew the back alleys, the places behind the fences, the location of
each