I seem to hang out with a lot of couples here.
Take yesterday - I went on a little road trip to La Plata (a town about ten minutes drive from Kirksville) with an Indonesian guy and his American girlfriend. Our quest to seek out an Amish bakery there didn’t quite happen because the bakery had a sign saying “Closed Till Spring”. If you don’t know what Amish people are, look it up. That’s some interesting stuff right there.
Today at lunch, I bumped into Zac. Zac is a guy I met at the Baptist Student Union during orientation. He's a junior who got married at age 19 if I’m not mistaken, or maybe it’s 20. Anyway, he’s 21 now and he says he’s very happily married, so I guess if you’re happy, age doesn’t really matter. So at lunch, I sat with Zac, his wife Amy, his brother Lucas, and Lucas’s girlfriend who’s name I didn’t catch. Lunch with two couples this time.
After lunch, I went to the CCF house to jam with Kyle, who is my Small Group leader in CCF, and also the head worship leader. Started off by setting up the drum kit all by myself. I’ve been playing the drums for close to 10 years, but this is probably only the 4th time I’d had to set up a kit from scratch. Struggled a little bit, but was glad that I was able to set it up successfully, because it’s a skill that is crucial for any drummer. Felt liberating and awesome to be on the drums again. Playing the drums in a band gives me a high that is hard to describe. That high takes on a whole new meaning when you’re playing in that band to worship God. I really want to thank and praise God, because after jamming with Kyle, he asked me if I wanted to play for worship this Wednesday during mid-week CCF. I feel incredibly blessed that I have been given the opportunity to serve God even here in the US with the gifts that He has given me. Glory to God!
Once jamming was done, Kyle invited me to join him and his girlfriend to go to an art exhibition that was being held at our Truman Art Gallery (Do you see where I’m going with this? I’m always hanging out with couples!). This exhibition was my first art exhibition ever. It was pretty eye-opening and thought-provoking. On a lighter note though, I kept imagining how fun it would be if I was there with some friends, and what it would be like trying to come up with “deep” and “philosophical” comments on the art and the artists.
One thing that struck me while at the exhibition was the continuous realization of how ‘art’ is such a dominant and outstanding feature of my personality. I am definitely more in tuned to the ‘artsy’ side of life. I believe that one characteristic of such a person is being more emotionally orientated. I rely very strongly on my feelings most of the time, and probably ‘feel’ stronger than most people who don’t share this same orientation. I can’t draw or paint well at all, but I can safely say that my talent in the ‘art spectrum’ is definitely music. Music is something that just comes naturally to me, the rhythm, the dynamics, the structure. When I listen to a song, I enjoy splitting the song up in my head. I’d analyze what the guitar plays, what beat the drummer is using, what kind of dynamics the lead guitarist adds to a song, etc, and I almost always have a song playing in my head. I don’t think that has ever stopped.
But music aside, every aspect of art holds a place in my heart. A piece of music with inspiring lyrics moves me without a doubt, but an article about suffering moves me just the same; a movie about a band of brothers at war inspire me to appreciate friendship and life, even a piece of artwork that I cannot fully comprehend makes me ponder life on a deeper level, a spiritual level even. I think that is the magic that art has on me, the revelation that life is full of deeper meaning and deeper spiritual depths. Only through art can my eyes be opened in that way.
Art never fails to amaze me, but what amazes me even more is the effect art has on me.
Title of this post is the title of the art exhibition I went to.
No comments:
Post a Comment