Things That Make You Say "AH"

I have a theory, and my theory is that so many of the issues we are having in our society today can be traced back to the steep rise in the emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the declining value of the arts and humanities (emphasis on HUMANities) in education and society. Think of any major global, national, or local issue, and consider how a better education in the arts and humanities could improve [or could have improved] the conversation and the outcome of our big decisions. The arts and humanities (AH) help us learn to say, "AH," and I don't think we say, "AH," enough anymore. So I propose that we learn to say "AH" more often.

"Ah, wow!"

"Ah, that's beautiful!"

"Ah, I see what you mean."

"Ah, that makes sense now."

"Ah, yes."

When we don’t know how to think through issues, talk through issues, read well (and I don’t mean the ability to read words but the ability to understand ideas), participate in social activities that transcend the physical, then all we are left with is what STEM can manage, which is only physical, material, and temporal. So we do not understand the value of what it means to be human and to live. This can be traced to the rise of industrialization in the 1800s and to utilitarianism—basically the idea that something is only valuable if it can be useful. But this completely undermines the arts and humanities, which are what give life to STEM.

“What use is a book? What use is an education? What use is a song? All that fluff doesn’t help me put food on the table!”

Perhaps not, but it certainly helps us enjoy life with the people who sit at the table. It’s the difference between a baked potato and a loaded baked potato. You can eat a baked potato and fill your belly, but the “loaded” part makes it taste a lot better! That’s what the arts do for life: they make it taste better.

The arts and humanities lay the foundation and steady the ship for human flourishing—for finding meaning in life, connection and relationships, joy in the midst of sorrow. STEM alone is/are STErile. It's the difference between what helps us make a living and what helps us make a life. STEM can keep us alive, but the AH gives us a reason to live. STEM shows us what humans are capable of accomplishing, but they cannot show us why it matters. It takes the arts and humanities to do that.

Even in much of the music of today, the advancements of digital technology and audio engineering have allowed us to remove all the human qualities that made the music of the analog age so rich. We can master the human quality right out of anything—a song, a film, a piece of art. We need a revival of the arts and humanities, gifts that God gave us to infuse STEM with purpose—purpose without which STEM has no direction, focus, or ultimate meaning. The arts and humanities teach us to understand people, empathize, be compassionate, love, think of others, ask questions, listen, be still, and learn why. When we don’t learn to value history and we don’t learn to read to comprehend ideas and we don’t seek to understand what we don’t know, then we cannot have meaningful conversations about big ideas, we cannot effectively solve big problems, and we cannot prioritize human life and living within the context of science, systems, structures, equations, economics, engineering, ”Big Tech,” small tech, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, all the letters and numbers...

We must learn to listen to music again, read a book in addition to the blog, seek beauty in a finished product and not just a contract fulfilled, and understand history and its impact on life today. We must once again learn to value the things that make us say, "AH."