On the Human Condition....

Yesterday in basic drawing, we began discussing the formal element of form. We analyzed various still lives and their artistic principles. There was one that was quite a bit more colorful and optimistic, and one that was dark and ambiguous. I found myself incredibly drawn to the darker of the two. As my teacher began discussing it, he began explaining how the still life stood for a larger metaphor about the human condition, and that we all are so close to each other, but we never touch each other.

At first, I thought it was a bit far fetched. Yeah, I am an art history major, but how can a bunch of bottles and boxes placed incredibly close to each other be a metaphor for the human condition? Literally, it's a bunch of shapes that are placed so close together you can't tell whether or not they touch until you stick your nose up on it. How do you pull out that metaphor?? Then I realized... he really has a point...

We walk through our day to day lives constantly surrounded by people. In class you're inches away from your classmate, a foot away from the nearest office cubicle, a foot away from your family member on the touch, inches behind the person you're walking near when traveling between your day, on and on. We are infinitely close to people, but we never touch them.

Touch is a basic sense and often times it is meaningless. You must touch something in order to make it move. You must touch something to use it, on and on. I guess you could say it's a basic physics principle. Touching an inanimate object doesn't mean much at all.

But what about when you touch another human being? What about when two life forces meet? There's something about the combination of two live senses meeting that is so powerful, but we underestimate. In a more figurative sense, we can touch peoples lives without physically touching them. But we don't, we stand close to each other but we never touch each other, and that is the human condition.

Why don't we touch each other, both literally or figuratively? I realize how weird the wording of that sounds, but it's such an interesting concept. Human contact in turn exchanges emotions and feelings, and conveys various different things words can't. Words can convey the figurative touch, the figurative impression one conversation can leave on your life.

It's quite an intimidating thing, to either put yourself in a vulnerable state to be in physical contact with someone, or to use the power of your words to make an impact on a person's life. I think that we all fear it, but I don't think we should fear it. We were meant to be relational with each other and make an impact. And it's possible that the impact we make could be positive or negative. If the impact is negative, we grow from it and become stronger. If the impact is positive, we feel inspired to continue to change a life just as ours has been changed.

The human condition is that simple, we are close, but we do not touch. We let fear take over. But have faith that there is more, and it can be changed. It all starts with one touch...