H,
There is a limit to what expression can do. This does not mean we should
not value it. There is some value in being able to howl at the moon. Repression
is never a good look. The beauty of all art, good art, is that you know the
artist is saying something, anything at all, from the very tips of their soul. There
is a loud cry from a hungry heart that can speak to all our collective and individual
hungers. It is really a beautiful thing.
It is not an end in itself, though. Expression is the path and not the
destination. “There are more things in heaven and heart…” It is not God. It cannot
speak to everything. It is like medicine, but we forget that medicine is only
for the moment of sickness and for no time after. There is more to it than
being able to say what you like, no matter how beautiful. Music or a painting
or a poem or a great book or film or sculpture or building or plan cannot save a
single human soul. It can, at its best, make it less heavy or more heavy. The
real thing, the eternal thing, is in our choices to love or to not love.
That said, there is nothing wrong with the beauty of telling a story. It
has been my whole life. I have used it as medicine over and over again and will
use it again, even today. It does not need applause or acceptance by majority. It
is utility all by itself. It is like the gospel; one single soul is enough for
heaven to rejoice.
I do enjoy being a howler at the moon.