Going All the Way

"There are certain artists who go all the way."


"Like, Bob Dylan or van Gogh."

"Uh, you mean, like, the way Bob Dylan became a Christian or van Gogh cut off his ear?" I asked.

"Yeah, kinda, except Bob Dylan could go back to being a Jew. Van Gogh, on the other hand--"

I laughed because it was true. The fact of the matter is my friend, Tim was right. Certain artists -- the good ones, I contend -- do "go all the way". They seem crazy, but somewhere inside their crazy is the Truth.

Artists who are willing to dig down deep, dredge up the muck, then expose it to the rest of us, those are the good ones. We wink at them and call them crazy. Really, they're just like the rest of us, except they're willing to take the risks we won't take. We connect with them because they say what we are too afraid to say. We sign secret pacts with them agreeing they will take fall so we can live in the confines of safety.

Artists who "go all the way" say what we want to say, live the way we wish we could live, do what we wish we had the courage to do, and, in the end, they are our heroes.

And, we remain the unrecognized masses. But, that's okay. Just as long as we continue to support and submit to this agreement, we can go on being bank tellers and housewives, CEO's and street sweepers. They can go on being "crazy" Artists. Just so long as the Truth be told through artists like Bob Dylan and Vincent van Gogh, I'm okay with that.

I might even join the crazy parade someday.