The Map

I took an art appreciation class in undergrad. The teacher was a white-headed man who wore glasses and waved expressive hands. He was whimsical and thoughtful. Unashamed, he pursued truth in the midst of dogmatic traditionalists and practiced his craft fervently. He was the type of professor a girl like me gets a crush on, but he was the type of professor who could never recall my name. I’d like to believe that he had no need for my name, there was no room for it amidst all of the color and fire and life I produced when I walked into his classroom. He could have called me Yellow or Petal or Breath, and I would have melted. 

He just spoke, using pieces of truth he tore from the world to pass on to the next boy or girl, man or woman who could listen and hear. He just thought, quietly processing art and movement and peace. 

Class met under the library where the art department lived; the roots of knowledge are art and paint and clay. Our class dove, danced, and dared through the Renaissance and the Baroque and the Modern periods. My professor prayed for us at the beginning of each class and if we were lucky, he would talk about the over-arching metanarrative, a common man would call this his purpose or work or business. He would sweep his hand from left to right when he said over-aching metanarrative  as if he was brushing heaven with the thought. His was the bride of Christ. He believed he could spend his entire life exploring that concept through his art and thought and love.

As I begin to settle in myself, I am stepping into acknowledging my own over-arching metanarrative, fingertips reaching toward God and wisdom and truth or at least one little aspect of it all, the little piece I have been given to extend myself into in order for others to see that part of the map. What a beautiful thing. God gives us all things to explore, not the WHOLE thing, just parts, and we are to share in order to see it all. What a fantastic map we would create, all of our over-arching metanarratives displayed.

Think, live, create.
Find it, explore it, share it.

I kind of miss that guy.

Advertisement