I spent the past weekend in the Chiquitania, a region in eastern Bolivia which is currently on fire. The fires have consumed well over 1 million hectares of this forest, along with houses and groves of citrus trees, millions of animals have died and those left are fleeing for their lives. Before going on this trip to work with the Red Cross to distribute supplies to the communities affected by the forest fires, I heard Joel Mckerrow say something about how we lack creativity because we don’t know how to listen. So, I went with open ears to hear their stories and feel their pain. I also took my ukulele with me and found an opportunity to share the song I recently released called Mucho Más, a song I wrote to build up people’s self-esteem. As I told stories and played the song, people cried and applauded and thanked me for bringing them hope.
I’m now looking to put together a team of artists, musicians and actors to go back to these communities to share hope through our art and bring beauty to their ashes.
Upon arriving home, I was inspired to write the following.
We’re counting on you
By Luke Vandergriff
What is the point of surviving without beauty? Why should we get up, if all we’ll ever hear is noise? When pain becomes pointless, hope is lost. Who will give meaning to my brokenness? What light is bright enough to pierce the darkness of my despair? Where are the musicians to interpret my confusion, and the poets to describe my turmoil? Where are the photographers who will flash their lights on the rights and wrongs and indifferences that surround me? Who will dance to the rhythm of my heart’s cry? Who will add pigment to my tears and paint on the canvas of my soul? You! The artist, the writer, the singer-songwriter, the one who has ears to hear the groaning I cannot express, and you, the one who can amplify the melody hummed by my heart, and you, the one who can sing of my redemption. You are the one who can piece together this mosaic called my life. Show me beauty and make me hear freedom! Cause my feet to dance and victory to leap from my throat! Make me see the stars and renew my awe. I am counting on you, the artist. We are counting on you.
It is time for the artists to rise up and embrace their true calling. Stop drawing your lusts and putting rhythm to your hormones. Snatch the brush out of the hand of your demon and silence him with songs of truth, and love, and hope and thanksgiving. Let’s stop sculpting images of our selfishness and start molding the minds of our society so to bring harmony where there is war. Let’s paint raindrops over dry land and rainbows over dark storm clouds.
Artists, poets, musicians, creatives, we don’t just have a profession or a hobby. We have a mission. To rid this world of monotony and beautify this momentary experience we call life. In our hands, there is power, power to heal, power to open the eyes of the blind and ears of the deaf, power to make people feel what needs to be felt, hear what needs to be heard and see what needs to be seen.
Your art, your craft, your music, it’s power. But what will you do with your power? Destroy or build? Kill or bring to life? Put down or raise up? I choose up.
Because there are people in need of beauty. There are people who need to see, who need to hear, who need to smell hope. We can give them a taste of goodness and pour mercy on their dirty hands and wash their feet with our words, strokes and melodies. They are counting on us. So, let’s sing, and let’s paint, and let’s dance and let’s write in a way that will bring change, in a way that will lay foundations worth building on, in a way that will heal and bless and give life to those who are in need. Our communities need us because if beauty will save the world, then, artists, let’s go be heroes.
Please tell me about your mission or how you can use your talents for the good of your society in the comments.
Oh by the way, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.