Art Heals

CS Independent published this 2/2/22 as part of its In Good Faith column.

Opinion: Art heals

· In Good Faith

Ahriana Platten: It seems every time I open a paper or turn on the TV, someone is talking about the impact of the pandemic, and offering little advice about how we cope with the changes in our world. All of us know it’s been a remarkably challenging couple of years — but what can we do about the way isolation, fear, loss and uncertainty affect us psychologically and emotionally?

Rev. Roger Butts is a Unitarian Universalist ministerand the author of Seeds of Devotion. Recently we discussed the power of art to heal the human spirit.

Reverend Roger Butts: In every season, art is healing and restorative. In a pandemic world, art heals and transforms.

Station Eleven is a brilliant meditation on the power of art in a post-apocalyptic world. In the book by Emily St. John Mandel, a traveling group of actors — fellow survivors — puts on plays for survivors in distant towns. The caravans are labeled “The Traveling Symphony, because surviving is insufficient.”

Survival is insufficient. Breathing, and calling it a life is insufficient. We long for a deep connection with our true selves, one another, and with the Mystery. Art gets us there, uniquely.