Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Well Said: Obedience and the artist

Still out of town and still quoting Madeleine L'Engle.
Obedience is an unpopular word nowadays, but the artist must be obedient to the work, whether it be a symphony, a painting, or a story for a small child. I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me." And the artist either says, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses; but the obedient response is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary.

As for Mary, she was little more than a child when the angel came to her; she had not lost her child's creative acceptance of the realities moving on the other side o the everyday world. We lose our ability to see angels as we grow older, and that is a tragic loss.
Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water

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