Brad Hachten: Even through despair, art can inspire

With Easter falling in National Poetry Month, I feel it’s worth drawing attention to the constructive power of art: transforming pain into art that provides validation while enabling transcendence.

Such transcendence can occur at the scale of the personal to that of the historically monumental. Writer Elie Wiesel, commenting about his book “Night,” which addressed his time in a Nazi death camp, wrote: “Such is the miracle: A tale about despair becomes a tale against despair.”

As I read the scriptures, the despair leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion is striking. The Romans crucified in such horrific fashion, trying to set an example to those who might incite insurrection against the empire and trying to instill fear. That this same symbol, over time, would come to connote and inspire the ennobling qualities of love, faith, and sacrifice, eventually overtaking the Roman Empire, is a testament to the transcendent power that a story provides.

Current events remind us there’s no shortage of human suffering. There’s valid reason for despair. Yet, through art, it can be transformed into something constructive if not miraculous.

This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Brad Hachten: Even through despair, art can inspire."