Purpose.
My art has purpose. It helps me cope. Period. It is valuable to me. There is no question about that.
But as my walls fill up and I run out of room I wonder if it has another purpose.
If I could give it purpose and freedom to go out into the world what would it do? In my mind it is a dream. It is surreal and heavenly. It would stretch arms out to you and warm your soul and say you’re not alone.
It would tug on the sleeve of your family and friends and say be understanding, listen, hold tight, just be there, love, don’t judge. It would validate those quirks and oddities of behavior as valuable and unique. It would love the way a mother loves. It would look you in the eyes with compassion. It would open your mind with wonder at the splendid array of ability and what it has to teach us.
It would connect the community of typical and non typical with intent. Purpose. It would value and cherish and not try to excuse or change.
IT WOULD BE PROUD. Embarrassment would be overtaken with awe. My art would give you courage to think about the ability war some people struggle with on a daily basis. It would make you think about grit and give validity to the wide range of ability.
It would be beautiful. In my dream if my art had purpose to someone other than me….it would hug you and you’d hug me and we’d all have a good cry and feel better and go out in the world stronger. The next time we felt the sun’s warmth on our face we would know a different sort of truth.
We would know there are things in life that just don’t make sense but that doesn’t mean they don’t have worth. We would see beauty in the vast complexity of living creatures and know in our hearts that just because we don’t understand something doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful.
Norms are important. We need structure in this world. But when a person cannot function within those norms it does not mean they don’t bring lessons and purpose to life does it?. In my dreams my art would bring on a conversation of worth. It would seek lessons in the arena of ability.
