PUSH AGAINST THE DARKNESS

For 2.5 years, I lived in Melbourne, Florida, 50 minutes east of Orlando. For a portion of that time, I did some producing on the side for a company in the heart of downtown Orlando.

Orlando.

The word has spent the past week at the top of news sites positioned next to ‘Breaking News’ for three gruesome tragedies within the city: the murder of Christina Grimmie, the mass shooting at Pulse, and most recently the horrible death of 2-year-old Lane Graves by alligator attack at Disney.

I’ve thought a lot about Singer’s Paradox and how closer geographic ties to an area make us want to act with more urgency than tragedies in places we have no association with in the present or in the past. But you may being feeling as I do right now.

Helpless.

“What can we do to make anything better right now?”

As I thought through this, a few things came to mind. First, we can pray. If you don’t know where to start, you could pray that God gives the families of the lost some peace during this time. You can also pray to be used in times of tragedy. If you need help with finding the words, here’s a prayer from Francis of Assisi:

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
― Francis of Assisi

Secondly, it’s okay to grieve. We should honor the reaction to horrible tragedies by letting the grieving process take it’s course. Grieving can take a lot of forms and through many artistic minded people, grief is shared through art. In that process, we can help to speak for the dead. To give voice to lives cut far too short. To tell stories of their lives while they were with us. To make us feel connected to them on a human level. To remember who they were and what they meant to us. To tell the world how it makes us feel to lose them.

Author Ian Cron, in his book Chasing Francis, says, “…artists help people to see or hear beyond the immediate to the eternal. Most people only look at surfaces. A great poem, story, song, or sculpture reveals the hidden meaning of things.” He goes on to say, “Beauty is a form of protest, a way to push back the darkness.”

Your work can unite us to push against the darkness. On November 13th, 2015, artist Jean Jullien pulled out his sketchbook and created this piece a minute after hearing about the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, France. In an article with Wired he asks, “Is it not the role of artists to give us symbols of strength and solidarity in times like this?”

If you’ve been given a passion and talent for art of any medium, then you’ve also been given a role. With that role, push against the darkness.