From Lisa – Why Bother?

I just returned from Italy visiting five amazing and unique cites, seeing incredibly mind-blowing art, walking down the same roads as Julius Caesar, and so much more! So of course, I jumped at the opportunity to do my blog post early because I should have a million things to write about… but I struggled last week finding the right story.

Perhaps it was from the jet leg or because my mind is still absorbing all the experiences, or maybe it’s because once I returned it’s back to business as usual.  No time to sit and eat a leisurely dinner, wander through art galleries, explore ancient cities, or just people watch.

In any event, while working late tonight playing catch up and strategizing how to juggle once again too many things, I threw on some music (switching from Bad Religion – heading to their show on Sunday – to Gogol Bordello – high energy, gypsy punk which helped me through organizing Board packets for the meeting – then finally fun. – of which I’ve only heard one song but they recently won best album of year so I’d try them out.)

The music from one to the next changed my mood and uplifted or motivated me – reminded me the power of art, why I work insane hours to create art here, and reminded me what our tour guide said when he (trying hard to assuage our disappointment at NOT seeing the Sistine Chapel due to conclave preparations) explained that Michelangelo stood 70+ feet in the air bent backwards in order to paint for years at I forget what age, but way past when he should having been doing it. BUT he did it, and it’s amazing.

So, even if I still can’t comprehend standing on the streets of Pompeii and peering into the foyer of a house over 2000 years old to see a mosaic of a dog with the words “Beware of Dog” below it, what I can comprehend is that the essence of humanity has not changed all that much. We create beautiful art, we build communities, we destroy them, we struggle to survive, for meaning in our lives, some struggle for power and misuse it, many others don’t and we carry on leaving what we can behind for others and hopefully leaving a better, more beautiful world.  And we do this year after year, century after century.  Sure we’ve progressed, better technology, medicine, etc., and hopefully we aren’t still participating in the same games held at the Roman Colloseum, but we are at our core the same.  Which is not an earth shattering statement but one that is often forgot.

So maybe that’s why I “bother” to create art that connects us, helps us reflect on our commonality, instigates conversation on our differences, and hopefully leaves behind an imprint that changes us for the better.

Okay, enough pondering the meaning of life and back to work!