h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'Art is long, but life is short'.

- Hippocrates, an ancient Greek chap.

I was thinking today that the arts are probably the best tool of communication we have. This premise is obviously founded on the ideal that forms of art can convey emotions and ideas in a greater depth than speech alone.

The arts are vital to our education, and even to our position as head species on earth (I hope no mice are reading this). It is art of course that provides us with a method of remembering large and tricky concepts, often through the use of colourful images and catchy melody - the most obvious example being advertising, although this is quite clearly a black art.

Various art forms are also vital for our emotional development; they are the keys to experiencing emotions indirectly. Take the emotion of sorrow we may feel at the end of a tragic play. This is probably not the kind of emotion we want to experience in our day-to-day lives. Art allows us to travel the full spectrum of our emotions, without consequence, or reprisal. At the end of a heart-rending performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, we may simply stand up and walk away, for we know it is only a game. It is this kind of emotional 'practice run' that aids us in our hearts to take on, and be victorious in this world, to capture the essence of life and return from its trials without losing our hopes and loves.

Opera, Sculpture, Cave paintings, Poetry, and Punk rock, all can help us to improve our emotional vitality, in a way I am certain no miniature, overpriced, off-milk flavoured yoghurt drink will ever do.


Sleep beckons…