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                                                                    SUNDAY, March 1

 

Welcome to my first weekly blog. This is not what I wished to write about for my first blog on this website.  Actually, I wish I never had to write about this at all. 

 

This past week, as all of you know, Leonard Nimoy died. And if you check the internet and all other types of media, you will see a great outpouring of love for a man most of us never met. And the question becomes, what is it about an artist that makes so many people mourn his or her loss, even though we didn't know him or her? The man who designed my car worked just as hard as Mr. Nimoy, as does the person in my apartment building rental office or the manager of my supermarket.  Yet, if I heard of there deaths, while I might feel bad, I would never have the sense of loss I do with this man whom I did not know (in the interest of full disclosure, I did meet Mr. Nimoy once, but while I will remember it until the day I die, I suspect that to Mr. Nimoy, I was just another fan).

 

The answer is that while we do not get to know actors intimately in the way we know our loved ones, the relationship between artist and audience is an intimate one.  We share with each other something deep and meaningful. The art affects us as an audience.  But here's the secret.  We affect the artist as well. The relationship between artist and audience is a symbiotic one, and when it ends, however it ends, it is a relationship to be mourned.