Art

I walked through a jostling, bovine mob past the genius of Chihuly at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Some would say we were there to "support the arts". That is, we were there so Chihuly and those like him can further culture through art. At $20 a pop, that is some shot in the arm for culture...and Chihuly.

I don't think the true genius of Chihuly's craft was at all infectious or enhancing to the greater multitude. As I sat next to an exhausted father whose young son was gaping at the bright-colored glass sculptures, his breathy wife approached in wonderment. "It's just amazing. How does he do it?" After listening to several minutes of her wonderment, I offered the suggestion that they watch a recent documentary made about the artist and his work. Her wonderment might be converted into actual understanding, I implied. I then shared a little of what I remembered of Chihuly's technique.

The two parents, now joined by their genuinely interested son, gaped at me stupidly. "Thank you," the deflated woman said abruptly with a sidelong look of suspicion at me, "We have to get going!" I had apparently shattered the mystery of glass magic. In other words, I had placed the burden of education upon her in response to her preferred wonderment at her own joyful ignorance. Buzz kill.

Art and religion are a killer combination, as history attests. Vast glass-lined cathedrals brought the unruly back to their knees after the Dark Ages. Domed mosques, punctuated with mathematically placed arches and tilework, placated and awed others who were massacred into submission. Even the Buddha's own words were ignored in favor of the artfulness of his enthusiastic followers, determined to popularize his message with guilded images and massive monasteries.

Could some humanists abandon religion in favor of a rite of hedonistic culturalism, laced with intentional celebrity worship and wonderment? Or, will the individual humanist realize the value of persoanl expression through art as part of daily practice and self-discovery? As long as art is money in a materialistic civilization, the former seems more likely.