By Nick Fury
Welcome to another exciting and informative installment of BlogBomb. The focus of this week is about the need for empathy in society and how music and art allow for this emotion to spread rapidly. Also I explore the notion of responsibility and obligation for use of this immense power.
Empathy is an emotion that is intrinsically embedded in our DNA and has allowed the human race to flourish and grow. Empathy nourishes the mind body and soul and is a super emotion with super powers that have an immense impact on ourselves and those around us. Think imagine the concept of paying it forward. Think of how it works, how it permeates outward like a bubble that wants to pop but just keeps on stretching. Yet, for some unknown reason, empathy is severely undervalued, overlooked and misunderstood. Empathy is a necessary and vital aspect of human growth and interaction and has actually been proven to be infectious.
According to Patrick Groneman “Empathy is a skill that experts from many disciplines have deemed important for personal, relationship and career success. People who are empathic tend to have better social interactions, academic performance and accomplishments at work than others. A strong sense of empathy allows children to make decisions that are right for them without hurting others or seeking approval or acceptance. This may strengthen them against negative peer pressure and a range of maladaptive behaviors such as substance abuse, bullying, narcissism, aggression or violence against others. Although some children are remarkably resilient despite abuse, neglect or other forms of mistreatment, studies suggest that “these early trauma experiences significantly increase the risk of emotional and behavioral problems later in life.”
Being a musical artist is the most satisfying thing that I do in my life. I get to create content using words and musical notes and then I get to record and perform it for people. I get to explore
emotions and feelings, deep concepts and engage in the world around me. I would even argue that musicians and artists are possibly the last bastion of the real super heroes that exist in this world. If you consider it, artists are given the unique opportunity to engage large amounts of people how clutch to your words and empathize with your emotions and stories. The real distinction is between musical artists and artists of other kinds are the way in which they connect and impact the public and shape perceptions. The true superheroes of today work with super powers creating a super world using empathy.
Artists Are Superheroes
“The artist has an important role in the world. He literally paints the future. Want something new? Want the world to go in a new direction? The only person capable of this is an artist. Whether you call him a writer, inventor, engineer, architect, illustrator, composer, or photographer, the ideas and inventions that progress mankind forward are all dreamt up into reality by some artist somewhere, whether he even thinks to call himself one or not. The Wright Brothers were artists. So were Steve Jobs, Nicola Tesla, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson and pretty much anybody else you can think of that had a positive impact on the world. You want to be an artist? You are in some excellent company.” – David Carus, from the book Super Artist – How To Take Flight As A Creator
It’s not like I run into a phone booth before every performance and emerge wearing a cape, but it does mean that a great power and great responsibility have been bestowed upon me. Art is the quintessential embodiment of our super selves and that is why empathy is so important. In order to create art that someone subjectively identifies with it is necessary to channel the empath inside of us and reach out beyond our physical self with energies. Music has been the way that I use my super powers to effect change in my community every day and empathy is the single biggest emotional component of my super skills. The thing that sets apart the artists community is the deep and honest empathy we feel for other fellow artists and also our fans and supporters. If one of my songs can directly improve and alter some person’s life in any way then I feel like I have done my ditty duties.
Empathy and Art
Artists of the world use your powers of creation for good. Make your cause a just one and always be willing to help another. People gravitate towards that positive energetic glow of sound and shapes. Harnessing them unto others should be the one true aim of an artist. Paying empathy forward to those around you will actually improve your mental health and physical well-being as well as the people you contact. I am writing this now as a reminder to myself to be more aware of being empathic too. Sometimes we let our ego get the best of us and that is not acceptable. As a final note I wanted include a track by bandwidthnoname.com about bullying. Take a moment to empathize with others and not hurt them…
FOREVER (a tribute to Amanda Todd): http://youtu.be/DaC4bee3i0U is our premix version of a song that has a great deal of meaning to us. It is a tribute about the perils of cyber bullying and the harmful the effects it has. We wrote this song to honor those who have remained silent in their suffering. BNN does NOT stand for bullying of ANY kind and we want to end the suffering.. Please help us by continuing to SHARE this link and song so we can get the word out and END CYBER BULLYING for good. Thanks for all of your help.
Nick “Furious” Meyers
Nick “Furious” Meyers is a longtime veteran of the New Mexico Music scene. Nick has worked with Community Publishing in the past, having served as the Audio Engineer on the multimedia children’s book, Fiona the Funkadelic Freckile Fairy. Nick is currently working working as the Audio Engineer on the Animated multimedia book, Bella the Caterpillar (written by 7yr old Marisol Paramo) to be published in the late Fall by Community Publishing: From the Community For the Community!
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities.
We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market.
#JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org
Society is structured in such a way that there is not a lot of opportunities for us to use our imaginations. The act of making art is a chance for your imagination to come out and play. You can have the freedom to dream when you use your art supplies and come up with images that are surreal and free from the limitations of physical reality.
Pizarro, Juan Ramirez, Christian Orellana), Voice Actresses (Jackie Zamora, Sofia Zamora and Marisol Paramo) and an author (Me). We also utilized the talents of Audio Engineers to help tell our story.
Alex Paramo
