Suffering Is Not Optional
on the mysterious connection between pain and beauty
As creators, we take our own life experiences and turn them into art. And many times, not always, those experiences are hardships - times of illness, times of loss, times of tragedy, times of trauma. This connection between pain and beauty seems to be a never-ending source of inspiration for me, and also something that I continue to explore.
I should say first that I don’t believe suffering is necessary to create good art. Art comes from many different places, and suffering is one of them. Art can come out of an overwhelming sense of gratefulness, it can come from experiencing a deep connection and love between people, it can come from the beauty of nature, and so much more. Inspiration for creating art is all around us, but I am convinced that taking your hardships and turning them into beauty is a gift, for the creator and for the viewer. It is never about avoiding the darkness, but about acknowledging and experiencing the darkness deeply, facing it and expressing and processing it through creating.
This topic never ceases to amaze me, and exploring it is largely the reason I started writing on Substack.
I think about the purpose of art often. I think about the purpose of my own art. Don’t take this the wrong way - I don’t think that art necessarily needs a purpose. Creating for the sake of creating is enough and should be enough; but when I think about how art affects me and what I gain from appreciating various types of arts - music, poetry, prose, the visual arts - I have come to the conclusion that one purpose of creating while living in this broken world is to bring about healing through beauty, healing for ourselves and healing for others. Beauty is healing. And it cannot be underestimated what beauty can bring to a person’s life. It cannot be underestimated that sharing your own dark times through beauty creates connections that can lighten the burdens of pain, loneliness and isolation. The vulnerability that it takes to turn the terrible into something beautiful creates an open door for others to enter in and feel some comfort, feel less alone, and realize that maybe what connects us as human beings is so much more than what divides us. Without a doubt, we humans are capable of enduring a lot and are capable of bringing about beauty, sometimes even at the same time.
It fascinates me because it says so much about our human condition and human resilience. It says so much about the fact that we all need beauty in our lives, that our desperate longing for wholeness and peace is part of our humanity as much as experiencing times of darkness and suffering. Suffering is not optional, but how we respond to it is.
I was recently reminded once again - humbly reminded, I should say - that everyone has their own story of suffering. Truly, everyone! Yes, we could compare who has it worse. Some suffering is more obvious; some is horrific beyond comprehension. But, we all have our stories, and our stories are in significant part stories of suffering - illness, loss, chronic pain, financial hardship, accidents, job insecurity, unfulfilled desires, longing for something that might never be - many kinds of suffering we all experience in our lifetime.
Often, the people that we meet might look somewhat perfect to us with success and money and everything you could possibly ask for. I might look at those people and conclude that they have it all together, but I was reminded, once again, that judging people from appearance or surface interaction never even approaches the truth.
We are so quick to judge, not only negatively but also in ways that minimize others’ struggles. We are so quick to assume. We are so quick to find our own assumptive explanations for certain behaviors without knowing the deeper story.
Judging others is part of our flawed human character, and it contributes greatly to conflict and pain. Judging others is, if we are completely honest with ourselves, something we do more often than not, and do more than we would like, sometimes habitually or subconsciously. Again, judging is not simply making negative assumptions, but also failing to see others as ones who also struggle and suffer.
And here is where creativity can come in as a tool for healing, a tool for honest and vulnerable storytelling. This is where creativity can help to turn judgment into compassion. And compassion can tear down walls of misunderstandings and bring about love and acceptance, which subsequently creates beauty, or moments of beauty, even in the midst of dark times.
And that is why I believe art can be powerful when it’s done with honesty and vulnerability. This is why I know that art is healing, and this is why I feel so passionate that we use our creativity and share those gifts. This is why I believe that creating something with honesty is worth it, even if only one person connects with it.
Creativity is a gift, a gift of healing. Keep using it!
The more I think about the human suffering in our world and my desire to offer a healing response, the more I realize how crucial it is not to allow myself to become paralyzed by feelings of helplessness and guilt. More important than ever is to be very faithful to my vocation, to do well the few things I am called to do and hold on to the joy and peace they bring me. I must resist the temptation to let the forces of darkness pull me into despair and make me one more of their many victims.
Henri Nouwen
Thank you so much for taking some some time to read this! I invite you to share your thoughts in the comment section.
So much of what you write here resonates with me. We are all an anthology of stories, those that we share and those we hold close to our hearts. Tapping into beauty, turning pain into art, is a way of making sense of what we went through. It can become a sort of survivor mission. That's powerful medicine! Those are the reasons why I feel compelled to make art and to write and why I'm drawn to other artists who do the same. I'm driven by a need to make meaning and to create something beautiful from loss. It's a way of achieving wholeness.
I love this Manuela, you write beautifully. I've just finished a piece of writing on art and healing so it was really lovely to read your thoughts on a similar topic. Thank you for sharing.