I found my people when I found my undergraduate major—Humanities. It explained how my brain had always deciphered this world and labeled a way of thinking introduced to me by my High School AP English teacher, Mary Smith. Infosponger before the label, Ms. Smith (and later in college, Dr. Art Bassett) taught me that by carefully observing and connecting varied and supposedly disparate entities, one could not only render life into manageable digestible portions, but also transmute its seemingly straightforward meanings into sublime useful tools for living. These “entities,” or artistic renderings of life’s dilemma’s, come in dozens of forms-- narrative, visual, auditory, artistic, musical, philosophical, architectural, spiritual and religious, or psychological to only name a few! Humanities gave human existence a larger context with deeper relevance and if successful in this undertaking, the Divine emerged. 

The Deeps endeavors to use the humanities by first deconstructing life’s puzzle, piece by piece, then suturing the golden threads that bobbed through those pieces, to find meaningful solutions to the human dilemma.  And if not solutions, Ms. Smith argued, at least you would recognize that you’re not alone in all this mess. Ms. Smith taught us this muck is and HAS been universal muck for humanity since the beginning of time; in the words of Talking Heads, it’s “Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was . . .”  

So…..

Can we use this humanities approach to practically metabolize and manage all the challenging obstacles that emerge in our lives?   Absodamnlutely.  Friedrich Nietzsche said that art worth its salt acts as a “transfiguring mirror”—a mirror that not only reflects life, but transfigures it, or changes it, in such a way that it makes life bearable. Defining art in this way throws open the doors of possibilities for what art can be which means you can find it anywhere—Bob’s Burgers, for example, or tiny brass incense burners in the shape of elephants. 

In fact, we found our theme in Bob’s Burger’s. In effort to find the “sunken treasure in the deeps” (a treasure trove of lost golf balls that he hopes to resell), Bob’s best friend, handyman Teddy, tells Bob that he needs someone to “feed him the hose” so he can go deeper than he ever has in the 9’ golf ponds where the balls hide.  That’s what we’re doing here—feeding you the hose as you thrash in the swell and explore the dark murky waters that encompass you in the deeps of life.   To help you manage all of this chaos, we’ll throw on our diving bell, plunge in the deeps, feed you the hose, and keep a lookout for sharks ahead. In the end, we all can distill the messy bits into useful, meaningful, and cathartic vibes. And with a little luck, we’ll encounter the sublime Divine in the process.