Opinion: Art of the elite

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Commentary by Amy K. Sorrells

This may come as a surprise to some, but I read books.

Lots of books.

My bookshelves are crammed full of them.

I love the symphony. I bird-watch. I graduated from a liberal arts college. I write literary novels.

The surprise is I voted for Donald Trump, and according to people like Meryl Streep, only elites are capable of appreciating such things. Recently, even the beloved Garrison Keillor defined anyone anti-Trump as, “…librarians, children’s authors, yoga practitioners, Unitarians, birdwatchers, people who make their own pasta, opera-goers, the grammar police, people who keep books on their shelves.”

Keillor went on to say those who voted for Trump are, “…uneducated white males…people who jump in the RV with a couple six-packs and go out and shoot some spotted owls.”

I beg your pardon.

My proclivity for a six-pack aside, the appreciation of fine art, dining and nature is not reserved for elites. I don’t do yoga, but plenty of conservative friends do. While my word-art will never be as beloved as Roald Dahl, I know the ache of putting words to what others can’t say. And I loathe bad grammar.

That’s not liberal.

Nor is it conservative.

No man owns the rights to moonlight, to the sunrise, to stars shimmering over rippled water, to the constellation of grief, or to love in a couple’s eyes. Artists are merely interpreters of beauty and pain that does not belong to them.

Streep should save her acting voice from her screaming and recognize “instincts to humiliate” may simply be the culmination of frustration of millions of marginalized Americans told for years they don’t know what love or art or beauty is.

If our nation is to heal, we have to stop defining each other by our politics. The world needs all of us, and all our differences.

As Van Gogh said, “…what is done in love is done well.”

No matter who you voted for.

Amy K. Sorrells is a local author, based in Zionsville. She can be contacted via her website at amyksorrells.com/contact/.


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