Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. ~ Charles Eames
Finding myself still struggling to work my way up from the depts of the recent election, I realized recently how jealous I was of one of my favorite writers now gone. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote in a 2008 essay in Harper’s Magazine titled, Staying Awake, about feeling ‘amused contempt’ for ‘the delusion of tyrants’. The essay, subtitled, notes on the alleged decline of reading celebrates the power of the meeting of minds made possible by art’s connections. Oh, how I wish I had the strength and confidence to feel ‘amused contempt’ instead of desperate despair for the tyrants in our lives right now. Le Guin’s essay gave me that electric jolt, a reminder that relying on the arts, and specifically writing and writers in difficult times can be our salvation. How others deal with difficulties helps us all to live with our demons. The outreach of one mind to another is why art matters. Continue Reading
