© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A Place To Find Solace

In the midst of bleak times, weather-wise and otherwise, I need an antidote for gray days and alternative facts. “There’s so much beauty in the world,” a friend said, trying to cheer me up.

So I imagine springtime gathering its energy below the dirty snow and project out four years, hopefully sooner, when mobilizing truth-sayers have gathered critical mass. 

Meanwhile, I find solace and inspiration in art – musical, visual, written, performance, and those creations that defy classification and often expose us to diverse cultures.

Our previous President “understood the power of art,” Wesley Morris wrote in a New York Times piece earlier this month. He was our “Cultural Commander.”  Let’s take his lead and seek out works of artists -- renowned and unknown -- and defend their place in our society, especially now.

I recently watched a film version of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” directed by Julie Taymor in 2010. The main character, Prospero, was reinterpreted as Prospera played by the formidable Helen Mirren. During the first 20 minutes, I wasn’t sure I was going to stick with it, but then I fell under its spell and found myself rewinding and watching the special features on the DVD.

It’s shot in Hawaii, and the beauty of our natural world also stars. Music plays a leading role – Beth Gibbons sings the epilogue that contains these words by Shakespeare: “Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant.”

Art can evoke that wonder we see in children. Art is not superfluous. It has the power to nourish something profoundly human and humane within us.

I’m Paula Garrett, and that’s my perspective.

Related Stories