Me, and Rauchenberg’s “Bed” 1955.

Last week I read a post by life coach, Martha Beck whose work appears regularly in O Magazine, and is one of the most thoughtful and inspirational columns you can find anywhere, much less in a major newsstand publication. Though I am not “a 55 year old woman into weight loss and self-help” (as someone recently described Oprah’s audience), I do admit to having an increased awareness in spirituality. Whether because of my age or that I no longer have babies underfoot, I find myself more drawn to life’s larger questions. Mid-life crisis? Maybe, but I do have (a teensy bit) more time to consider my purpose here.

What struck me in particular about Beck’s recent post had to do with her prescribed solution for combatting what she calls “existential loneliness” or “the great burden of human consciousness.”  Her solution? Art.  Seeing it, listening to it, making it. (Wow! That’s all there is to it?) Beck says, “Seeking the company of people who have learned to transcend the isolation of an individual life, who have felt as I feel and managed to express it, is the best treatment I’ve found for existential loneliness.”

I know I am at my best when I feel connected – to the Universe, to my environment, to others. And the connections made through the act of creation, through writing, or painting or filmmaking, for instance, are no less valuable. I’d just never thought of it that way before. And now it seems so obvious. I mean, I definitely feel a human connection to a filmmaker after seeing a great film, or to an artist having spent some time examining a piece of art.

Now certainly I don’t intend this blog to be an examination of the existential (zzz), but I do feel the opportunity here to make connections with you. I just never thought that being drawn to art, in my case, the visual and the creation of things, was actually a connection to other people.

As humans, we are dependent upon connections, whether we like to think so or admit it, and remarkably we are the only species on the planet to create things just for the sake of making a statement. Gabrielle Bernstein says in “Add More ~Ing to Your Life,”  “After watching a musical performance, I realized that the joy I felt while watching the band was a reflection of the joy I feel inside.” Whoa.

So I hope you’ll stick with me as I continue on this journey. We just may be onto something.