Friends,
The snow is gorgeous, the weather a bit warmer where I am.
And yet I hear from students that the poorest people in Mississippi are still without power. St. Basil's in Haiti is trying to make education possible for young people. War continues, some that we've helped cause, and others where we are not assisting those suffering. There are people without the food, housing, and healthcare they need.
Somehow we must find a way to see the beauty without ignoring the needs.
Liz
Taking Time for Art
I read one of the stories from my book at the release parties. It's about knitting group that I have attended at a women's shelter in Waltham. While much of the services provided for the women are asking them to do something better, more carefully, for more pay, knitting group asks nothing. We just knit.
I mean we chat, sometimes about important things, but usually small talk. And we listen, so when someone needs to talk, they have a place that is safe. But mostly we just knit.
There is a story in our culture about what we do needing to be bigger, faster, farther, needing to be more. If we knit, perhaps we can sell it. If we sing, perhaps we can do it better. If we dance, draw, sculpt, if we art, then we should do more, improve it, make into an income stream.
It takes resistance to stay off that path. It is an act of resistance to take time for the arts simply out of joy.
I attend Sunday worship in a tiny congregation where I am fed by the great music. Some of it pours over me, refreshing my heart. Some it calls me to join in. The pianist is often funny, choosing unexpected closing pieces that after just a moment, we all recognize. The choral director chooses a great variety, that fits well with the voices we have available. I'm not in the choir, I'm just a lover of the sounds.
Exodus 28:3 suggests that it is God that gives the skills we have for these artistic endeavors, and that we can create art that honors God.
And you shall speak to all who are skillful, whom I have endowed with skill, so that they make Aaron’s vestments to consecrate him for my priesthood.
I'm spending a lot of time in the quilting space in my attic. Surrounded by piles of beautiful fabric, and the tools to manipulate that fabric I create wall-hangings, stoles, clothing, and bed quilts. It's a fascinating process that involves planning, cutting, ironing. Choosing fabric. And countless hours pulling out incorrect seams.
I get distracted by new ideas, and have three quilts in the "almost done stage". One needs the last two (already quilted) rows added, another needs the quilting and binding. I have a dragonfly wall hanging that I think I would finish if I knew who it was for.
The decision to spend time on art when the world is falling apart can feel frivolous, but I believe the decision is one that supports the resistance. Art is political. Some of the politics come from the finished artwork. Quilts that symbolize our history, that honor people who are oppressed and people who have lead the resistance. Some people like quilts with words that proclaim love or diversity or good old neighborliness.
The AIDS quilt told an amazing story simply by having each block describe a person we have lost. My friend Chris Reed has a huge pretzel in the middle of his square, from when he ran a cart on Church Street in Burlington. When it covered the ellipse in front of the White House it made a statement. When the gathered squares became so large it moved onto the Mall it made even more of a statement. And yet it is just stories of people who have died.
The process of taking the time to sing, play an instrument, dance, paint, sculpt, and more, is resistance as well. It is the decision to see beauty, the decision to show reality, the decision to take sabbath time. The culture wants us to hurry, the arts require us to slow down. The art of writing requires us to make sense of the chaos. Fiction provides a way to create a world that is better, or to show a world that is worse. In stories we can make sense of the confusing events around us.
It was a few painting courses that were instrumental to my call to ministry. The repetitive action of brush into solvent, paint, and onto the canvas is meditation. And in meditation I found myself listening for God's world. Today when I hear a podcast that makes me cry, I find healing in the time spent cutting square of fabric.
What is the art that heals you? What is the art of the resistance for you? Reply to this email to let me know what you are creating.
Beth DeSombre's music is about stories. She is a professor of environmental sciences.
The next No Kings Protest is March 28. Make plans to save the date. We don't know if ICE will be out of Minneapolis by then, or where they will be next, or what the next chaotic form of attack will look like. But we must be prepared to stand out. Bring some art!
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