Nobody Puts the Artist in a Box

Choosing Against Living in a House of Mirrors

I have a friend who whenever I share about politics or theology or anything remotely sticky where opinions fall across a wide range of ideals, texts me something like “Remember that you’re an artist first” and that “Beauty will save the world.” I have another friend who whenever I share about those things, though, just says, “I’m with you but not going to say anything publicly.” Another friend, also an artist, usually just messages and says, “Good Lord, I’m prayin’ for ya.”

When I think of my vocational mentors, they are people who are not primarily known for any one thing, but many things. Wendell Berry, perhaps one person knows him best for his writing on agriculture, economics, and community, but another knows him best for his poetry or fiction. Madeleine L’Engle, was she a poet? An artist? An actor? A novelist? A theologian? All of the above? William Morris, known most immediately today for his textile and wallpaper designs from the Arts & Crafts movement, but in his lifetime, he was mostly known as an activist, poet, and socialist.

I find nothing wrong with an artist who is only an artist, a poet who is primarily a poet, or a novelist who only writes fiction. I’m just saying, that’s not who I see myself as or who I aspire to be. I am most interested—in life and in work and in the work of others—in how art, life, politics, theology, etc. interact with one another, or, to use a somewhat overused word, integrate with one another in order to make me a more integrated and whole self, and our world a more whole and integrated world.

I don’t want to belabor this point, but the past two weeks of my inboxes across the board have been…a lot. Some readers say, “I don’t follow you for politics.” Others say, “Just focus on Jesus and keep politics out of it.” Others say, “You pander to your progressive readers by holding an evening just for them and leave your conservative ones feeling marginalized.”¹ There were a lot more comments and emails, but that represents the gist of most of them. I get it, emotions have been heightened the past few weeks—and rightfully so, I think. Those whose candidate won are feeling defensive and those whose candidate lost are feeling adrift.²