Picture the word SOUL—what flashes through your mind? Take a moment. Paint your thoughts on the blank canvas. Free associate. Go ahead: Think outside the widescreen.
"Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee."—Psalm 143:8
I'll tell you what flashes through my mind. Van Gogh's The Starry Night, Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," and the sound of Miles Davis's trumpet. The heartbreak and redemption that gently two-steps through Horton Foote's screenplay Tender Mercies, the daring geometric forms of architect Zaha Hadid, and the I-don't-have-words-for last scene of the film The Natural. The purple shirt I'm wearing as I type this and the snow outside my window. My daughter's smile. Steve McCurry's photographs. First light at the rim of the Atlantic Ocean. Silence. Lightning piercing a lead-gray sky. ART! The capacity for deep feelings. Color! Empathy. Improvisation. The electric current of our being, the thunderbolts of talent and originality that make us who we are. FREEDOM!!!! Me. Who I am. What makes you, you.
