Ustad Farida Mahwash, On Love (And Music)

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=256562024

"Art in general, she says, and singing especially, is all about love. I am a messenger of love. It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, Buddhist or Muslim. I love humans, all humans."


In the simplest of definitions, is this what art all comes down to?

Ballet, Art & Death

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/19/174753335/a-ballet-memorial-to-a-son-killed-at-war

"You're taking something which is horrible ... and turning it into something which is beautiful and life-affirming," Amy Wolfe tells NPR's Lynn Neary. "That's the way art is."

I think that's a damn good definition of art, don't you?

And I just think it's so incredible that we can take our grief and our pain and all the things we wished hadn't happened and turn them into something. Make them into something more. It's like that story Rumpelstiltskin, and how he spins straw into gold.

We can spin our sorrow into art.

To creating something beautiful out of whatever we have on hand.

Moonstruck (On Why We're Here)

Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn't know this either, but love don't make things nice - it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die.
-Ronny Cammareri to Loretta, Moonstruck 

This is my absolute favorite quote from the movie. (Perfect if you need a little pick-me-up.) I love that last sentence - how we're here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts...It's almost giving you permission to do something you know you're going to regret but have to do anyway.  

And I love how Ronny is romantic and anti-romantic at the same time, talking about how love isn't like "they" (whoever "they" is, anyway) told you, but how "it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess."

To ruining ourselves, (of course).