JOHN HENRY AND "ART"

ART HAS MANY ASPECTS John Henry, the legendary "steel-driving man," is known to us in song and verse, for having worked himself to death in an effort to prove his physical superiority over that "newfangled" steel-driving machine that both threatened his economic security, as the top "steel-driver," as well as his sense of personal pride being impaired. Riding an Amtrak train through the hills of West Virginia, one may see scattered tributes to the muscular black man, "who laid down his hammer and died 'Lord! Lord!' Who laid down his hammer and he died." Song, poetry, all forms of art pickle, preserve, can, human endeavor with the same efficiency of salt and brine. Here, at least, art out-duels history. Even insignificant history is conserved, like that of "Frankie & Johnny," or "Shine & the Titanic"--which now is untrue; since a black man did drown, on that great ship, a Haitian engineer, his French wife and their two little children, in fact. The point is that art has a major role to play. It yet plays, a major role, whether as "Birth of a Nation," in film in 1915; or as Beyoncé in "Formation's" song-dance Super Bowl half-time extravaganza in 2016. Art plays a decisive role in human history, often determinative! "Art" infiltrates the soul. Ancient Egyptians, according to Plato, in THE LAWS, rigorously controlled artistic representations to assure their lasting fidelity to prior forms. In this regard, they succeeded for 10,000 years of glorious history. Whether by preserving, renewing, ennobling, inspiring, framing, teaching, or entertaining, art is central to man's life aesthetically. It is also crucial substantively to man. It is more than music, painting, dance, sculpture or poetry. Art is also the Bible, the Pyramids, the Star-Spangled Banner, the airplane, the missile, the gun, arrow & bomb. Art has many aspects, many of magnanimous import, which are intuitively beautiful, others not!