Make Good Art
Dear Mr. Gaiman,
Today, I handed my husband the printed book version of your speech, "Make Good Art". As I stated previously (in a letter that's now the about page of this blog), I believe my husband is a spectacularly talented artist. He can play a dozen instruments, has recorded multiple albums by himself, he sings, draws, designs and photographs as easily as breathing it seems.
Last night, we had an explosive argument. Last night ended with him emailing relationship therapists. This morning, after a bit of the kind of communication you are only capable of once you have exhausted every bit of emotion and energy in your entire body, we started to be really honest with each other.
One of the things that my husband told me, is that he is jealous of my ability to connect and communicate with people. Another thing that he has told me during all this, is that he struggles with reading. Not that he can't read, but the comprehension of a plot is hard for him, relating to characters is hard for him.
I sincerely believe that reading was the first step to me being able to connect "so easily" to people. By pure design, reading is stepping into another's shoes, seeing through different eyes, processing through a different mind. I feel it's impossible to not learn empathy when you read enough. When I was little I read to escape a place I didn't feel heard or understood, so naturally, I read to listen and to understand.
So, this morning, after my husband said he failed to connect to stories that he tried to read (and after a couple questions about what he had tried to read), I handed him, "Make Good Art" and asked him to read it aloud to me. He did and he cried three times while reading it. I knew at that point, it wasn't an inability to connect, it was that he hadn't found the right things to read yet, and I knew how we could connect with each other.
So, an idea was born, an art project of sorts and a relationship recovery project as well. We'll read aloud, books from you, Neil. We'll talk, and document, and create art based on what we feel and what we learn, and we'll share that here. And hopefully, in the end, we'll connect in a way that we didn't know we needed.