The art of life — an inspirational passage

The Art of Life by Ira D Schogam

“Life, beautifully lived, is an art.” Yes, whether we will or not, we are artists. To each has been given, by a benevolent Creator, the raw materials out of which life is made.

When we begin our task of living, these raw materials are in the rough, as a stone just taken from the quarry- a shapeless mass, often unattractive, and seemingly with very limited possibilities- awaiting the skill of the Master Artist.

Michelangelo, the great artist of the Renaissance, once said he could see an angle on the rugged stone on which he was working, and that his task was to liberate it.

This is the business of life, namely, to make out of the rough materials of daily opportunity, the shapeless mass of the past, a life that is attractive and beautiful and of enduring value.

Many are merely dabbling around making some strange monstrosity, some childish caricature, some ludicrously grotesque figure, which excites only a sense of humour, or of pathos, because of its incongruity.

Others are content to copy life after a common pattern with no skill of artistry, and no sense of life’s true values.

A few, in harmony with Father’s perfect plan, are creating masterpieces of exquisite beauty, of lasting enjoyment, and of rare accomplishment, which will be classic in the annals of the history of man.

Whether our lives are beautiful and sublime, or commonplace and unattractive depends to a large extent upon our skill as artists, our concept of the beautiful, and our appreciation of the true values of life.

Creative art demands the price of discipline, of hard work, and of eternal persistence.

True art is the product of skill in creative expression which is innate, and to which has been added long years of study, of practice, and of painstaking evaluations.