Spinning on

Looking at art in an uneasy world ...

With tragedy upon tragedy, the world's inhabitants are finding life itself even more precious, and the environment considerably more fragile than we imagined. Yet our planet spins on, it seems, without a care in the universe.

Questions for us individually appear to be matters for choice: we, in the words of a proverb, either sink or swim. Those that cultivate a strong affinity with the arts strike me as possessors of a 'faith' that cuts deep and smothers triviality. Art in all its manifestations is the imaginative aspect of living, and needs to motivate a resolve to continuously build and strengthen its influence everywhere.

In music there is plainly a choice of involvement: some sing, some play, whilst others sit and listen. It is a moot point whether players or listeners reap the greater satisfaction. Whilst some undoubtedly take the view that performers with direct musical involvement receive a greater benefit, all of us listen and draw from this according to the sum total of our experience.

When crises, which usually erupt from the greed of others, threaten our existence, there stands beside faith the whole gamut of artistic illumination that has enriched Man down the centuries. Anything material can be destroyed, but thought is retentive and has accumulated throughout Time.