'Truth is Art,' says Franklin

I was reading through Jon Franklin's book Writing For Story the other day when I noticed the following passage:

"The reader and editor want a story with a minimum of loose ends, a tale that's been simplified and crystallized in such a way that it clarifies and enlarges the mind. They don't want reality, they want Truth, and that's not the same thing at all.

Truth... is art?"

I had to reread this a few times before I realized exactly what he was getting at and then it hit me. What makes art meaningful, whether it's a collection of brilliant prose or an incredibly filmed piece of cinema or a handcrafted boat, is that it makes us step back and learn something about ourselves, and about life, and about the world.

We don't use art but rather, we behold it. We engage it. And art makes us more human in the process because it reveals something true about the way we are or the way the world works. So, when we finish a good poem or a view a good painting, we must walk away transformed into something different than what we were previously.

And this brings me to Eugene Peterson, who says something similar about scripture:

"...In our reading of [scripture] we come to realize that what we need is not primarily informational, telling us things about God and ourselves, but formational, shaping us into our true being.

It is the very nature of language to form rather than inform. When language is personal, which it is at its best, it reveals; and revelation is always formative - we don't know more, we become more..."

What Peterson is saying is that in the same way that true art reflects Truth and reveals something that expands us and broadens our worldview, so also scripture (some may even call scripture an art form at one level or another) does the same thing. Of course, neither scripture nor art are Truth on their own- but rather they invite Truth. Namely, they both reveal The Truth. And an encounter with The Truth is always life-changing. So, both Art and scripture are formative. They both cause us to reevaluate who we are and what we should be doing with our lives.

And that brings me to when I began working at Media Partners last July. Jim, one of the partners, pulled me into his office a few times to tell me all about the vision of the company.

"We want to make films that express basic human truths," He said, "because that's what separates what we do from the mountains of crap that litter most of the training video world. We don't just want to inform people, we want them to connect with our shows on a fundamental level and use that connection to give them a new perspective about live and work."

And I believed him. At least I think I did. All the same, every time I turned in a script or an e-mail or a training outline he'd ask me very kindly- "what's the truth behind this?" And I think, now, I get what he was driving at.

He wanted our clients to become more after reading a marketing e-mail. He wanted them to become different because of a script we worked on. He wanted us to latch onto something that everyone knows about- yet no one understands- and work at it and massage it until it became revelation rather than just reality. In other words, anyone can tell the facts- we needed to get to the heart of it and describe the Truth.

***

And all this brings me to a little bragging about two screenplays I wrote last year. I suppose I did pretty well crafting the prose, because both of them were awarded top honors with AMCP. Is 'Good' Enough took home a gold award, meaning it was rated top notch in its category. And my baby, Moment of Truth, took home a platinum award, meaning it was rated head and shoulders above everythings else in its category. I'm glad for both of these recognitions, because it was really challenging to get the screenplays approved by the powers that be. Both Jim & Bob (@ Media Partners) have very high standards for their films. When I began, I thought my first drafts were pretty good, only to find that months and months of work were required to get them right.

I'm glad, now, that we took the time to polish them into something true, rather than simply something real. It took a lot of work, but I think I finally get it. Truth, after all is art.