Editorial

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Editorials | Send mail to The Voice Expose Yourself to the Arts The modern world offers a mass of entertainment: movies, videogames, Internet and satellite dish television with 700 channels, all of which can be accessed from a person's living room. Modern entertainment, however, does very little to broaden vocabulary, provide cultural awareness, spur creativity, educate or leave a product of value. The new millenial generation is settling for the mundane instead of experiencing the new and stimulating. The arts are a great way to be entertained while at the same time being educated and polished into a person of broad cultural awareness and intellectual acuteness. Most frequently humans use rhetoric when they communicate, but alternative ways to understand people exist. Music and art are methods of communication that bridge language and cultural differences. A painting can tell a story, release emotion and inspire the beholder. Music is also rich with feeling and can communicate sorrow, happiness, anger and other emotions without a single word. Another reason to study the arts is that they give insight to the past. Art, music and drama explain various countries and time periods. How will our generation be remembered if we never leave the couch? If you enjoy going to the movies, try theater. The red curtains, bright lights, costumes and audience give an exciting atmosphere. Dialogue in early theater is witty and filled with literary devices. Unlike the happily-ever-after movies Hollywood produces, many of the earlier playwrights penned tragedies. Enjoy rock? Try listening to Wagner's "The Ring." The music conveys convulsive patterns of energy and anger much like the rock music listened to today. Dancers may enjoy a ballet. Elegant and smooth movements may give you ideas for choreographing your own dance. If you just like to stare at yourself in the mirror, check out Van Gogh's self-portrait. View some of his other paintings such as "Starry Night" while you are at an art museum. Be intentional with your entertainment. Choose to experience the arts. Don't go through life on the couch, wearing out those control buttons and depreciating your mind. Experience culture and history, and appreciate beauty. The arts may change you. Expect insight, intellectual conversations, creativity and a new appreciation for western culture. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Editorials | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2004 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.