December 4thProcessing alongside Art
How do you keep going when it feels like your whole being has dropped into your stomach? How do you find the spirit to create when it feels like the building blocks are made of malice? How can you hold onto a hope that Creator is at work in the world when it seems that many are still choosing to dehumanize, rather than to love…?
The days and now weeks that have followed Nov 5th have been staggering and liminal ones. Though I don’t dare assume that is the reaction all had to the events in the US election. But many in my circles, both young and old, have been staggered by it. (VERY) Simply put, it was not the result I expected from our neighbors to the south. And in the weeks since, it has honestly challenged my hope for humanity in the digital age.
It’s the moments where we are disheartened that we look to Creator in hope of, well, Hope. The imaginative means to carry on in resistance to that which we recognize as contrary to Christ’s rule of love. And for me, that has often come from Art, and more specifically: film. So let me share the story that helped me process recently.
Porco Rosso, made in 1992 by renowned Studio Ghibli Director; Hayao Miyazaki. A story of the titular pig-pilot (Porco) working as mercenary-for-hire in foiling the plans of sea-plane pirates in the skies above the Adriatic Sea in the post-WWI Italy. And those unfamiliar with Miyazaki’s game might think this an eccentric setting to engage alongside the 2024 US elections. But hidden behind a “fantastical” premise lies a deep and profound interaction with war and Nationalism’s dehumanizing effects on our humanity. Often encapsulated by the line Porco speaks in response to being offered to rejoin the Italian air force to end the government’s pursuit of him; “Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.”
Engaging Art likely isn’t going to result in an “earth-shattering” revelation, it's often soft and comforting moments of insight. And I believe Creator’s presence defines our understanding of ‘secular’ & ‘religious,’ and can be encountered in Art regardless of whether “God” is named or not. In this case, this (re-)watch offered me was the ever-small reminders that one can oppose such agents that are (in my experience with Creator) anti-to-Christ (War, Nationalism, and yes, Fascism).
In such a way I am convinced that Art is an act of resistance. The creation of it for sure, but I might also contend that the thoughtful engagement with it likewise. But resistance to what exactly? I would say, it is resistance to a broken world, to the powers that be that seek death, rather than life. It is to participate in a Holy-Imagination, or a Holy-Imagining that God can and is at work in creating, renewing, and reconciling creation to God-self.
We cannot possibly hope to move from where we are, to somewhere new, unless we have with us an imagination for what that new reality might look like. And that it is precisely in the moments where those powers seem to be closing in on us, choking our breath. In those moments we are invited, NAY implored, to bring Art and artistry along with us on the journey of faith.