Such art has its greatest punch when it reflects our own times yet reinforces timeless themes, shedding light on what we can do to navigate our way through our current stretch of tension-filled days. I can see what she was driving at, but I’ve always believed the arts prepare us to be better people by softening our rougher edges.Īncient Greek philosopher Aristotle described the process as “catharsis,” a kind of purification, a purging of base emotions through “pity and fear,” affirming the mystic power of art when we experience it, particularly theater.īut the notion, it seems to me, also applies to any art that appeals to the intellect as well as our emotions, such as Renoir’s 1880 Impressionist painting of youthful friends, “Luncheon of the Boating Party” or Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel about a girl’s half-innocent mistake that ruins lives, “Atonement” or a symphony, with its musical rhythms, harmonies, tone colors and structures or the Gershwins’ 1935 “Porgy and Bess” opera, which is theater and a showcase for the human voice, as all operas are. My wife, Hale, a former high school art teacher, has long said they don’t but always adds that doing for others, our communities and nation, getting beyond the narrow lanes of self-centered ways, makes us better people.

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