In Praise of Fanatics
The Quality of Your Life Is Enhanced by Relentless People
An age-old debate or controversy exists over the value of art. Is it a necessary part of life, or just a frivolous pursuit?
Granted, we need farmers, tradesmen, garbagemen, physicians, first responders, etc. to keep us alive and safe and healthy, but what about the things that make our lives worth saving and perpetuating — or at least make our lives more interesting and enjoyable? As has been said by some wise guy or gal, your life is not so much about its quantity or longevity, but its quality (“It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years that counts”).
To come right down to it, our senses are not absolutely necessary. People live without them — without sight, or without hearing, or sans the ability to smell, taste, or experience tactile stimuli. They can live, they can survive, even when lacking multiple of those senses. But who would choose to divest themselves of any of their senses?
Although not technically vital, or essential, isn’t life better, more valuable, with those senses, and preferably fully operational? The answer seems obvious. And how are those senses stimulated? Why have vision, if there’s nothing beautiful to observe? Why have hearing, if there’s nothing uplifting or toe-tapping to listen to? Why have the ability to taste, unless there’s something other than Tofu to eat and water to drink? And so forth.
Many of those things are an integral part of, or are “built into,” the world around us, such as sunsets, rural landscapes, the songs of birds, the whisper of the wind through the trees, and the proverbial babbling of the brooks.
But other beautiful things to see and hear and watch and read are produced by humans; by artists. Is art necessary for life? No; but (again) neither are our senses. We can survive, but having thrilling things to excite our senses is what makes us feel fully alive.
The quality of each of our lives is enhanced by art — music, prose, photography, drawings, paintings, poetry, movies, and so forth. Let’s get specific; repeat after me: “My life is made better, more enjoyable, by the music of [fill in the blank].” In my case, there are many names I could insert there, from the incomparable and almost impossibly talented J.S. Bach to Stephen Foster to Bruce Springsteen to Shania Twain to Jackson Browne to Merle Haggard to George Strait, not to mention The Beatles, The Moody Blues, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, The Outlaws, Gatemouth Brown, Rory Gallagher, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes (not to mention Foxes and Fossils and The Petersens) … the list goes on and on.
Now continue: “My life is made better, more enjoyable, by the writings of [fill in the blank].” My entries would be Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Maureen Dowd, Frank Bruni … the list here could also go on and on, practically to infinity and beyond.
Life is better because of the photography of Ansel Adams, David Muench, Dorothea Lange, and so many others.
Life would not be quite as sweet without the acting of Robert Deniro, Robert Duvall, Audrey Hepburn, Meryl Streep, David Strathairn, Harry Dean Stanton, Haley Joel Osment, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Helen Hunt, Michael Shannon, Tom Hanks, Gregory Peck, and Chris Cooper; the directing of Martin Scorses and Greta Gerwig (it was a travesty that her version of Little Women didn’t get the nod for best flick in 2019; Green Book was very good, but not as good), et al.
Not to be forgotten are the members (actors, writers, directors, et al ) of tv shows such as Dick Van Dyke, Lucy, and All in the Family. I consider Dick Van Dyke to be the most talented man in show business — he can do it all!
My life has also been enhanced by poetry by Byron, Shelley, Hughes, Frost, Stevens, and so many others; the artwork of painters from Van Gogh and Hokusai to Bierstadt and Church, and … you get the picture (pun always intended).
The point is: the works of artists makes our lives better, more pleasant, more enjoyable. I’ve never met any of the people mentioned above, but if I could or did, I would thank them for making my life better, for enhancing the value of my existence. And the same goes for those who give us movies — the writers, the directors, the actors, even the producers (i.e., the decision-makers and money-investors).
Where do these benefactors of ours come from? From us, “the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass,” as Carl Sandburg put it. But it can’t be predicted who those benefactors of humanity will be. When J.S. Bach was born, nobody could have foreseen what a prodigious talent he would have and hone. The same can be said of all the others. People viewing those individuals when they were young (before they were famous or acknowledged as geniuses) probably found at least some of them to be odd, quirky, even obsessive or fanatical about their art. But that fanaticism, that unstoppable drive to pursue their art to its ultimate expression, benefits mankind as a whole. What they do is the polar opposite of crimes against humanity — they are good deeds for humanity. And it takes the whole collection of those strivers to produce the handful of super-talented ones that we, personally, greatly appreciate.
I say to aspiring artists what poet Robinson Jeffers wrote in Shine, Republic, namely, “Be great, carve deep your heel-marks.” Don’t listen to the naysayers, the doubters, the haters. We need you. As Ootek was told in Never Cry Wolf, Endeavor to Persevere!