Words To Live By

I am reading A Short History of Myth, by Karen Armstrong, and have found much that inspires me. Teaching artists who have ever had a hard time getting a group of resistant students to engage in play may relate to our text for the day:

"Human beings are unique in retaining the capacity for play. Unless they are living in the artificial conditions of captivity, other animals lose their early sense of fun when they encounter the harsh realities of life in the wild. Human adults, however, continue to enjoy playing with different possibilities, and, like children, we go on creating imaginary worlds. In art, liberated from the constraints of reason and logic, we conceive and combine new forms that enrich our lives, and which we believe tell us something important and profoundly "true". "

- Karen Armstrong  A Short History of Myth page 9