Why I like Wilco

The excerpt below from L'Engle's Walking on Water helped me to understand why I gravitate toward certain artistic expressions and away from others--and why others do so as well.

According to her reasoning (and I agree), I resonate with Wilco's Sky Blue Sky or Arcade Fire's Funeral, Greene's The End of the Affair or Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, and The Shawshank Redemption or A River Runs Through It--not just because the beat is tight, the prose is moving or the cinematography is transcendent--but also because these works of art (and so many others) help me to feel more "Named."

Stories, no matter how simple, can be vehicles of truth; can be, in fact, icons. It's no coincidence that Jesus taught almost entirely by telling stories, simple stories dealing with the stuff of life familiar to the Jews of his day. Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named. And Naming is one of the impulses behind all art; to give a name to the cosmos we see despite all the chaos.

God asked Adam to name all the animals, which was asking Adam to help in the creation of their wholeness. When we name each other, we are sharing in the joy and privilege of incarnation, and all great works of art are icons of Naming.

When we look at a painting, or hear a symphony, or read a book, and feel more Named, then, for us, that work is a work of Christian art. But to look at a work of art and then to make a judgment as to whether or not it is art, and whether or not it is Christian, is presumptious. It is something we cannot know in any conclusive way. We can know only if it speaks within our own hearts, and leads us to living more deeply with Christ in God.