The Value of Artistic Beauty in Caring for Culture with Makoto Fujimura
//Too often we live in binary thinking, stuck in the false dichotomy between success and meaning. Acclaimed artist and author Makoto Fujimura joins Andrea to discuss his book Art and Faith: A Theology of Making and why beauty and transcendence are vital parts of our lives and meaningful work.
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Transcript
Hey there! It’s Andrea, and welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast. Today, I have with me an amazing artist and an author, a thought leader, and I’m really, really looking forward to visiting with you. So, Makoto is an arts advocate, a writer, a speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer, a presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003 to 2009.
Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. His books, Refractions and Culture Care reflect many of his thesis on advocacy written during that time. His books have won numerous awards, and his highly anticipated book, Art & Faith: A Theology of Making, has been described by poet, Kristian Willman, as “a real tonic for an autotomized time.”
So, Makoto, it’s so great to have you here on the Voice of Influence podcast.
Makoto Fujimura: Well, thanks for having me.
Andrea: Of all the things that you do, and you do so many things, is there a way to describe the fullness of who you are and what you do, without being reductionist?
Makoto Fujimura: I am an artist and I have been, since as far as I can remember, I have been privileged to make a living off of what I love to do. And so, that’s a miracle of some kind, and I write out of my studio experience, I speak out of my studio experience, and I obviously advocate for other artists out of my studio experience. So everything flows out of my studio.
Andrea: Why out of your studio, what do you mean by that?
Makoto Fujimura: Well, that’s where I sense God’s presence when I’m working, when I’m making, when I use this very traditionally driven material based on Japanese history, but what I do is contemporary. So, I am mixing the old and the new. When I paint, I feel God’s presence here. It’s the most sacred place that I know. And so, everything, writing and, any kind of advocacy, I do flows out of that tangible experience of God’s presence in my creativity.
Andrea: So, for those of you who are watching this video, there’s this beautiful painting picture in the background. Can you tell us a little bit about what we’re looking at?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. So, these are my series Walking on Water that came out of the March 11, 2011 disaster in Japan, the Tohoku great earthquake and tsunami that washed away fishing villages that has been there for centuries, and many victims from that day. And the nuclear meltdown still continues, so it’s not over. And I began a series called Walking on Water, because I believe art asks deeper questions that we can’t answer and deals with the impossibility of even our longings and our hopes. And I believe in that honest questioning, we can find ourselves, and we might even find a voice of God speaking into that.
So, Walking on Water asks, can we walk on water? These large canvases are 7 x11 feet. They’re monumental works. I’ve done so far about eight of these, and these are the newest ones that I did this last summer. And I am hoping to show them in Los Angeles next spring. And, also, one of the Walking on Water paintings I do is on the cover of Art and Faith book that just came out of Yale Press, and also I have in the backdrop as my zoom backdrop inside the studio.
Andrea: It’s beautiful. Tell us about Art and Faith, what’s the basic idea behind it and why did you write it?
Makoto Fujimura: Art and Faith is my life work. I began to write this book a long time ago, beginning my journey in college, looking at the Bible as a nonbeliever, and then later on as I heard the voice of Christ through literature and art and the Bible. And when I became a follower of Christ, I read the Bible through and through three times, and I found it to be an amazing book about creativity and the love of this Creator.
And so, I began to note things that turned out to be a little unusual in the context of churches. People usually don’t read the details of Exodus 31, Bezalel and Oholiab creating the mercy seat two and a half cubits by one and a half cubit and be excited by that, you know, people say, like, “Oh, what does that mean? I don’t know, like why do you care about the measurements and the materials?” And I said, “Well, I can see it as an artist,” and the reason why it’s two and a half cubit – a cubit is a measurement at the time. In Egyptian times, it was Pharaoh’s arm from the tip of his finger to the elbow that was a cubit.
So, every pyramid is built with different measurements and whoever the leader is, you know, that human measurement became the accepted measurement. So, for the mercy seat, they must have measured Moses’ arm because he was the leader who carried the design as well as the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments down from Mount Sinai. So, I’m reading this and I’m like, “This is incredible!” The fact that it is that size two and a half cubit means that it is just too large for you to carry yourself. You’re going to need help.
And I was reflecting on the half, and the half signifies mercy because God has to fill the other half. And, you know, all of these observations I was making right away, but you know, it doesn’t seem to affect too many of my friends, you know, in the same kind of excitement that I had. So, I began to just write it down. And these observations over the years became this book.
Andrea: Hm. That’s so interesting. So, of all the observations that you made, is there any that you would like to share with us besides the one that you just shared?
Makoto Fujimura: I mean, every page in the Bible, you can, as an artist, see the artistry of God. Amazing flip of a perspective that God makes through Christ. We are the masterpieces. We are the artwork, you know. I’m one dedicated to creating beautiful objects and art, but God is even more determined to create something out of this brokenness and darkness and failures and, you know, many things that you would think would create this impossibility of being able to find hope.
But God is the ultimate, and perhaps the only true artist who does everything out of love. And that’s the most incredible thing about the Bible is, it’s full of these designs and voices. Jesus himself, his voice was recognizable to me as an artist’s voice, one who understood exile, one who understood the true beauty and true truth. And they had to speak against even the authorities at times when he needed to, but I loved them – which is so incredible as an artist to hear that voice and to follow that voice.
I can talk to you about how, you know, I wasn’t always about details, and I focus on the shortest passage in the Bible which is John 11:35: “Jesus wept.” And I spent quite a bit of the time describing why that’s so significant for me in this theology of making, what I call the art of making, which is really the theology of new creation.
Andrea: In your book, Culture Care and Art and Faith, you make a reference to the industrial revolutions impact in fostering a utilitarian pragmatism in our culture, that really results in a loss of connection between our work and it’s greater meaning, finding meaning in our work. So, what do you believe contributes to that cultural disconnection? Why does it matter?
Makoto Fujimura: Right. So, when industrial revolution happened and, for good reason, it created this mechanism that created human beings as part of that mechanism. So, efficiency and purpose, fullness and utility became the assumed parameter, you know, through which we judge our work and, you know, understandably that’s measurable. And so, we measure our lives by how productive we have been, how much, you know, things we can put on our resumes, and, you know, companies, their bottom line is measured by how much profit they make and so forth. And, inherently, that’s how it works in the world.
But what we are losing is that our humanity that longs for this extravagance, and it flows out of love. You know, when you love somebody, it’s no longer about efficiency or about utility. When you love somebody, you waste time together, and you do things that are extravagant. You do things that value that person rather than, you know, how many resumè-able activities you had on that day. That’s, you know, not not-important, but it’s not the essence of what relational reality is.
And the Bible tells us God is love, and God extends outside of time and space. In other words, outside of the material universe in which we are driven by this mechanistic, you know, valuation. So, God, in that sense, doesn’t need us or the creation. So, why did God create this is the beginning of my book? And the answer is God created, because God is love and love is an extravagance and gratuitous. It moves beyond utility and purpose, and utility and purpose are included in that love.
But if we forget the origin of purpose, which is this love that has this exuberant, you know, margins that it creates, you know, that does not make sense at times, right? So, you see this in nature. You see this in places that human beings will never see. If you do a deep ocean dive and you’ll see all these spectacles of beautiful creatures that nobody sees. So, you even look into the microscope, you see so much beauty in a single flake of snow.
And why is the world created so extravagantly and beautifully and even unnecessary beautifully? That’s an indication of the Creator creating out of sheer love and sheer understanding that because God is not just a source of beauty. God is beauty. Everything that God creates is beautiful. And so, this is fundamentally something that we have begun to lose in an industrial mindset. And, you know, this purposefulness, which is again, not a bad thing on its own, but it’s limited in understanding the true nature of humanity and the fullness of humanity.
Andrea: You know, as you’re speaking, it makes me think about times in my life when I was probably more attuned to the beauty around me than maybe I am right now, or than I am very often. I’m trying to think of how to put this, but I feel like when I am so aware of the beauty, it feels big. This great, I don’t know, weight, yeah, there’s that feeling that it’s just so big. I can’t hold it, and I don’t really know what to do with it.
I’m trying to think of how did I handle that. I think that there was a form of artistic expression that allowed me to be able to handle that, whereas now when my life might be a little more utilitarian, I avoid it because I don’t have the same time to devote to handling it. Does that make sense? Am I crazy?
Makoto Fujimura: No, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we all are artists until third grade, most of us.
Andrea: Or until we take on a lot of other responsibilities.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah, we are told that that’s not important, you know. You’re imagining things. There are more important things to do than to dance when you’re joyful, right? And so, we learn, our society teaches us very efficiently, that, you know, art is fluff. It’s nice when you have extra time and extra money but, you know, it’s not going to help you to survive. So, grow up and get used to it, right? But the problem is, you might be very successful doing that. But at some point, like you’re saying, this sense of grandeur comes back to us because that is exactly how the Holy Spirit wants to draw us to the most enduring things?
You know, we could have all the success and accomplish all the things that we set out to do, build our resumes and impress people, but, at the end of the day, those things mean nothing to us. You know, when you look back on your life and, let’s say, we’re on our deathbeds and we’re thinking back to the most important experiences of our lives, it’s not the resumes, it’s, you know, these intangibles that we have experienced through our loved ones or moments when this grandeur hits us, and we cannot explain it.
And even art, as focused as I am on that, it’s only a beginning. My book is only a beginning into understanding how gracious and how impossible this grandeur is to capture. So, that longing, you know what C.S. Lewis called the weight of glory – this heaviness should affect us every day. But as you noted, we seem to ignore that and run away from it at times because we don’t know how to handle it. But, you know, I don’t think it takes much to tap into that every day.
And it’s a kind of a discipline that would only require, you know, Emily Dickinson had only one desk, 17 and a half by 17 inches cherrywood desk in her bedroom facing the street of Amherst, and that’s what she wrote with an lamp. And nobody knew she was writing poems. You know, I sometimes think that we don’t need a studio. We don’t need anything, but that little desk that is dedicated to expressing the longings and the glory that we experienced. And, you know, she woke up at 3:30 in the morning so that she can be baking at 5:30 to take care of her mother, and that means that, you know, she doesn’t have too much time to write.
She sacrificed her sleep to wake up and work on her poems, and it wasn’t for publishing; it wasn’t for a job. Nobody thought, you know, they knew about her baking, but they didn’t know about poetry. So, it became this very much a dedication to the grandeur that you’re speaking of, and the pain, and all that is there in life. And, you know, I think those moments and those small gestures can be very significant.
Andrea: I would imagine that they are significant even with purpose of some kind. So, why should we tap into that? Why shouldn’t we run away from it?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah, because it’ll catch up to us at some point. And, I think that’s part of, you know, theology and new creation. It’s not anything that we have to do. We’re not required to create. We’re not required to dance, but it is what makes us human beings. So we actually have the privilege on this side of eternity to create into the next. God wants us to understand that it was through God’s sacrifice of God’s Son to come and embody the fully divine into humanity.
And then after that, it becomes an invitation to the banquet. This is a feast that is coming, and we ought to be preparing for that. And the way to prepare for feast, you know, I always joke that we are wedding planners, you know, planning for cosmic wedding to come. What do you do when you’re planning for a wedding for a friend? Well, you run around try to find the best music, best food, everything, right? And you try to understand the bride and bridegroom to the best of the ability to serve them. And you, in a sense, waste time, right?
The practicality of getting married is all you have to do is take a vow. So, why do you have this extravagance? Why do you have this extra stuff? And why do you have a community around it, who, you know, come up around you, your family, and your loved, ones and your friends? It’s all because there’s the weight of glory there, you know, there’s beauty there. There’s something that we all long to be part of. It’s a narrative that is, you know, echoing from eternity into our hearts, and something rings true when you see that and when you experience it. You’re a part of it, and that’s what art is.
Art is fundamentally poetry, you know, dance, music – they’re all part of this way, that path toward that transcendence, toward that, you know, the feast that is to come toward this banquet that is all ready. We have to prepare as we live our lives, as we try to survive, and as we, you know, face our reality all around, and the scarcity around us.
Andrea: You talk about being, we’re not “human doings”, we’re “human beings.”
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah.
Andrea: I like that distinction.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah, that’s from my mentor Nigel Goodwin in UK an experienced actor who would always remind artists, you know, “you are human beings, not human doings.” So, it’s a beautiful line to remember.
Andrea: There seems to be an increasing cultural shift in mindset as both businesses and customers want to do more than just meet a transactional need. I mean, they are more aware of the desire to contribute to this greater need, especially right now. I think everybody is a little more aware that everybody’s on edge. People are struggling. You stated that while reductionism is dissatisfying, defining good alternatives is challenging. For those who are in business, who find themselves pressed to meet the bottom line to stay in business, how can they work in ways that really honor both the need for productivity and greater meaning that is really that “making versus doing” perspective?
Makoto Fujimura: So, it’s not either survival or love, it’s both/and, right? But, you know, we create these dichotomies all the time, these false binaries. So, it becomes about issue of this versus that, you know. We assume that everything is limited. We live in a limited resource environment. There are some games that are winning and survival. So, we have to choose between love and success. Well, that’s not saying that that’s the case because, you know, the greatest success is the ability to be able to define that success yourself, right?
So, if you can understand success, not as the society or the world deems it, but as you determine, and you create your own path into that. Now, you could be a CEO of Amazon, and, you know, this will be true for him as it would be for a postal worker. What is the meaning that we are to bring into this life? And I argue that transcendence, that meaning is far more important to seek out. And as you note, the business communities are getting to be very aware, that we used to say, “Well, empathy would be, you know, you don’t want empathetic people in a workplace because it’s a competitive place.
Well, you know, Adam Grant, a warden began to take data on actual businesses and bottom lines, and he found that companies with highest empathy does the best, because they have this invisible capital built into the communal ways that, you know, company employees feel, that they are being loved at the workplace.
Even in sports, San Antonio Spurs, have multiple championships without a superstar, why is that? Because they have the highest empathy level, not just in the team, but in the company. So, that proves, really, that that something called empathy, which was dismissed, even 20 years ago, is now, companies are looking at and saying, “Oh, is there something to this?” You know, my daughter is an organizational psychologist.
Andrea: Oh, no wonder, you know, now you’re speaking my language.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. So, you know, it’s really fascinating to me. So, is beauty the same way, you know, not cosmetic beauty, but beauty of something that endures? Isn’t it something that every company would want to have for their employees, certainly, as you know, at least this level?
For example, if you work in a company and if another company has the same pay for the same work, but the office building is beautiful, as opposed to your company with the office building is really ugly, you know, there are no windows, which would you rather work? Obviously, you work with a beautiful company because you feel better at the end of the day, you know, and you’re able to, perhaps, have a better interaction with your customers and your employees. So that’s kind of obvious, right, when you put it starkly like that. But we choose as if we don’t have that choice every day.
So, we ended up being trapped in a situation where there is no beauty, you know, there’s no beauty, and yet you feel like you’re trapped, and you cannot make that choice. The reality is, you know, even with this severe downturn, actually, the severe downturn is an opportunity to create something out of the margins today.
It’s actually important for us to be thinking about that now, because even though we’re struggling, you know, some of us are struggling to pay rent and so forth, but it’s also created enormous momentum to think about what a new wine skin is in business and what is it that we want – you know what is our goal. And it’s a good time to be thinking about that because we do have that opportunity coming up.
Andrea: Pain is so interesting because it is something that we run away from, pushback on, and yet it seems to me to be one of the biggest catalysts for beautiful change, as you’re talking about.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah.
Andrea: We have to reimagine. We get to reimagine.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah.
Andrea: It calls on our sense of creativity. It calls on that piece of us that says, you know what, maybe it isn’t all just the way it is. It isn’t, “it is what it is.” Maybe we could do something differently. Maybe we could do something better, whatever that means.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah, whatever that means.
Andrea: So, it’s easy to think of the brokenness of the world and the challenges that we face in our work as really darkness that presses in on us, pain. A guest that we spoke with a few weeks ago talked about it really as that grind that we experience at work. But you really flipped that image and described light as actually being a boundary for darkness. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. So, it’s interesting theologically, and Lisa Sharon Harper, a friend of mine who wrote this book about, Genesis, you know, she was talking about it. And she’s an African-American and argues that darkness was in the beginning, and therefore darkness, you know, is, just as good as light. And we have this propensity to label things, and that struck me as something of a blind spot, you know. So, even for me, I began to think about that and what if the darkness was beautiful and full of mystery and possibilities, and God dwelled, in that, God’s original home was darkness?
And yeah, because God is love, God created light basically for us, right? It’s just this gratuitous gesture of creating a world, a universe in which the light source is fundamentally the source of everything. And then, you know, we think about Jesus being the light and how the new creation will not require this physical light, but this light of Christ shining upon all of us to expose and to refine us.
So, when you kind of flip it, so what is darkness to us? Darkness is scary. Darkness is something that we avoid, you know, because we don’t want to think about it. You know, we associate that with death. We associate that with lack of life, but, maybe if we understand the darkness as a way toward God rather than away from God, then we begin to have this journey every day and opportunity to understand God’s presence in the very dark places that we inhabit. And, you know, sometimes we are forced to be there.
And it’s not just deciding that darkness is good, but it is good. We just have to be open to that possibility of God’s presence in what we call darkness. And then the light can become boundaries and definitions of, you know, of everything that we come out as God does in creating. You know, we can’t create something out of nothing, but we are invited to create something through our traumas, through our challenges, you know, seeing every setback as an opportunity to forge something new into the world. And that kind of perspective can really reshape how we view it.
It doesn’t make trauma any easier, but you know, one thing that was trauma counselor tells us is that you really have to accept that this trauma is not going away. You’re not going to get over it. You’re not going to become a new person in which you are able to forget this trauma, it’s always going to be part of you. And it takes a while to accept that. You know, you want to be over it. You want to run away, you want to throw it away. But oftentimes the path to healing is accepting that this wound is going to be always there, but your perspective toward that – you know, in a way you can see through that into the other side of hope.
Andrea: Hmm again, that idea of, of pain and how it presents an opportunity, maybe it’s not so bad. I was thinking again about the whole idea of the weight of glory or the weight of beauty that we were talking about earlier. And I think the other thing that I find myself doing in release of that is tears, is just tears. And for a long time, I felt like I shouldn’t cry, or I didn’t want to cry around other people, for sure. But then I think, once I started to cry and be okay with some tears, I realized it wasn’t killing me.
Makoto Fujimura: Right.
Andrea: I realized that it actually helped me to, sort of, ride the wave of grief, if you will. Or you know, it does resonate with what you’re saying about this darkness that maybe it’s something that we could embrace a little bit too.
Another person that has been hugely influential for me is Dr. Larry Crabb, who’s a psychologist and he actually just passed away, but hugely influential for me. And I remember some of what he talked about being: “It’s not so much the pain itself that ends up being so painful; it’s our response to the pain.”
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s so true. And, you know, I talk about Jesus wept in the book. That’s actually the central thesis throughout the book. But, you know, there I found out on my trip to Israel that they actually have the tear jars, you know, because tears are valuable. And, you know, we have a culture where we hide our tears, and we remain stoic. And as you experienced, you know, maybe we’re embarrassed by our tears, but thank God that Jesus wept openly and in front of his friends.
And I think that shows that why would, you know, the Son of God, who can resurrect Lazarus, weep, you know, waste time weeping? He has all the power to heal, all the power to right the wrong, yet he felt deeply the wrong, the suffering, and the anger that all of us feel. And Dr. Crabb is right that, you know, it’s our response that can either stop that process from happening for whatever the reason, or maybe run away from it.
And that’s the worst thing you can do because, you know, trauma will come to haunt you in some way, in a bigger wave of emotions that you can’t handle. And you almost have to shut down at that point. But if you can weep, and you have community around you that can weep with you, that is the path to healing. I mean, in this time, after 2020 and now ‘21, you know, everybody is carrying lament and sorrow in ways that they cannot understand yet.
And I experienced this after 9/11, it takes a while, you know, what I mean 20 years later, I’m still finding these fractures in my life that I didn’t know were there, and it gets triggered by things that are unexpected at times. But you know, again, you, you go back to what you just said, which is if I’m able to weep about those things, if I’m able to be honest and set it as kind of like a _____ stone, you know, that is always going to be there, but it can be a marker. And you are able to walk, you know, beyond another path and that becomes sort of a marker.
I say in the book toward, actually, the new creation because Jesus’ wounds are still with Him in post-resurrection appearance. So, there’s something profound about that by His wounds, we are healed and through His wounds that the new creation comes. So, you know, by logic, I think all wounds, too, are significant as part of, you know, what Christ suffered for us, so that can kickstart a kind of a journey that, you know, we can encourage each other in our communities to be on.
Andrea: All right. So, as we’re kind of facing this great divide in our nation, in United States anyway, what’s important for those who want to approach culture from a perspective of caring, really for that common good rather than warring over different values?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. So, Culture Care is undergirded by the theology of making. And basically, you know, Culture Care came out of my advocacy for artists and arts in the United States, and I used to lecture a lot in museums and public spaces. And I always have theological undergirding to go with whatever I was saying. If I was advocating for modern dancers, you know, I talk about the sacrifice that goes into a single leap, you know, and that sacrifice, of course, is related to love because agape love is sacrifice. And where does that come from? Well, it comes from the Bible and so forth, you know.
So, you know, I used to think, and I do still to this day, that Galatians 5, understanding the fruit of the Spirit that Paul talks about – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control – are qualities that we should seek to manifest in culture. So, some of the indictment is, if we ask somebody out there who is not a Christian, outside of the church, about the church, what words would you use to describe us? Instead of love, we have hatred, instead of joy, we seem to be rather anxious. You know, instead of peace, we seem to be determined to fight our culture wars. And it’s rather indicting.
And when you’re out there speaking, and I wasn’t speaking in behalf of the church, but I felt like, you know, this is fundamentally the fruit that we have born into culture as people who birthed western civilization and all the beautiful art and music. We are not stewarding what we do very well to be a blessing to just anybody, you know. And even if you are an atheist, you hate the church, you hate God, there’s something about the arts that reminds us of the grandeur, the longing that we have for transcendence.
So, you know, part of it is not even an argument. I’m not arguing against its cultural wars. I understand that there are times when you have to defend your turf. There are times for war and there are times of peace, but culture care is really looking at culture as ecosystem to steward, a garden to tend to. And if you’re gardening with your neighbor who happens to be of different political interests and maybe the total opposite of who you are, what you care about, is, is this neighbor able to create good tomatoes, you know? And we should all taste the fruit first before we argue about how we got there.
So, you know, we should taste the omelet first, before we argue about the recipe. If the omelet is good, then let’s start on the recipe. You have the tomatoes, let’s learn from this person the fruitfulness of that delicious tomato, how that person made it because we need to learn from that person. It really doesn’t matter how that person voted, what kind of background that person has, all we should care about is the tomato.
Andrea: This has been such a lovely conversation. I’ve really, really enjoyed this. So, I’m going to ask you and I’m going to ask you our final question here in a second, but before I do that, where can people find your book? Where can they find your artwork?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. So, my book can be ordered through Yale Press or Amazon or whatever local bookstores is probably the best way just to ask them to order some. And my work is, you know, if you’re on social media of any kind, thanks to my daughter, I mean, all of them, most of them you can find me anywhere.
And when I have my exhibits, I do post them on my Twitter and Instagram. So, yeah, feel free to follow me there. And I am just so grateful for readers and people who I have been able to converse with, including yourself, that has reached out to me. And, you know, as an artist, I consider communication to be impossible. So, any kind of, you know, response, it seems miraculous to me like, “Oh, you actually read my book, you know?”
Andrea: I love it. I feel the same way. I always do. I have that same reaction any time someone says they read my book.
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. It’s like, “oh yeah.” Any meaningful reaction is like a plus plus plus, you know, and so I really appreciate this, and I really appreciate the leaders who care about these things.
Andrea: Okay. For those who want to have a Voice of Influence, especially creative people who often feel sidelined by this sort of utilitarianism, what is your advice?
Makoto Fujimura: Yeah. You know, I talk about three G’s – Generative Living in Culture Care and they are creating genesis moments. And the second one is, Generosity, and the third is Generational Thinking. But the second one is generosity, it’s an exhortation for artists types because artists, you know, are conscripted on frontlines of culture wars. They feel the scarcity. I say, artists are the canaries of coal mines of culture, and they smell the poison and sing. They’re the first to realize and may be affected by the toxic air. I know how that is. And yet I have seen so many artists in the frontlines, and in hidden places, being extraordinarily generous. These, you know, we have the capacity to lead in generosity in the world.
And I think that quality should be recognized as part of our education and part of our leadership structures. Because if encouraged, artists can be the most generous group of people, that’s like very powerful because a lot of these people, as you and I know, are struggling. They’re faced with scarcity reality, but they’re never, you know, poor in that sense because they have something to give out of nothing. And they can create, you know, something from very little, and that’s a quality that, you know, especially going forward, we will need in the society.
And I have seen that in the lives of artists, Christians and non-Christians, they are people that I look up to as people of generosity. And so, I would ask all artists to be generous because I know they are, and I know they can be.
Andrea: Thank you so much! Thank you for this conversation for your books, for your art, and for being a Voice of Influence for our listeners today!
Makoto Fujimura: Thank you, Andrea!
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