Plato doesn’t like poets, but I do. I’m reading parts of the Republic for my history of philosophy class and am thus meeting the author’s disapprobation of poetry head-on. That’s okay, though. Plato’s a smart dude, and he’s often right, but he’s not right about everything. Through the character Socrates, esteemed the wisest man of his day, Plato denounces art as mere imitation of life, removed by several degrees from the essential content of life. Poetry, as with all art, is but a reflection of what is real, a shadow that flits here and there and then is gone.

Without meeting all of his objections, which would take much time and thought, I will simply say this: art is valid as an expression of thought and experience. This argument can be over-done and over-lived, but it has validity. Ours is not simply to compute equations and parse grammar. We are not merely rational creatures. We are emotive beings, capable of intensive feeling, and happily able to express it. In reading poetry or fiction, listening to music, or watching drama, we see something of our own experience and are able to process our own lives. Through the arts, we are able to make sense of our lives, to converse with our emotional side, and take in and mull over the sights and sounds, the raw stuff, of living. There is more to art than this, one may say, but these are key elements of the artistic encounter.

All that said, here’s a link to a Lifehouse video that well interprets the current state I find myself in. It’s called “Spin” and it speaks eloquently to driving guitars of the messiness and uncertainty of early adulthood. Enjoy it, and tell Plato and co. that Consumed sent you.