People can talk about speaking different languages--Spanish, French, Russian, and the like. All of them are valid languages by everyday standards. We all understand what makes up those languages, enough that they are taught in the classroom. Those languages are official. They have rules and structure. Spoken languages fit into cultural boxes.
But I would like to bring up an underappreciated language, one understood (and often mastered early) by a variety of people, because their core meanings don't need to be taught or learned (though some never seek to learn it). These new languages span the gaps between cultures and individuals because they are so easily understood. These less talked about languages surrounds us wherever we go.
Art. The languages of our senses and our heart.
Through different mediums exploring different senses, artists of all kinds interpret and translate the world around them.
Musicians focus on the sounds of this world, leaning into the consonance, dissonance, and chords all around us.
Writers put ideas to words, using the rules and walls of language to create a garden in a brick wall.
Painters and other visual artists utilize colors and shapes, taking the visual sense to a whole new level.
All simplify the world in some way, in order to dive deeper into it in others. It's a way of taking what's in the world, understanding it, and putting it into a new perspective in order that other people will understand the simple joys and sorrows around them.
It's about taking the bigness of the word and condensing it into a few stanzas or a pastel painting. It's about telling another human "I relate" even if it's only a doodle or an impromptu dance party. It's about communication.
Art is one of the few languages that adapts through culture, and in fact shines brighter through culture. Through the diversity and other spoken languages around the world, art takes on new shapes and colors. In different ways, art takes on a different flavor. It allows people who can't speak the same words to look at each other and see the emotion, the heart, that grammar rules can't always unlock.
But then there's the individual advantage--each person views the world differently. Each person translates their experiences differently, uses different colors to paint similar pictures. Van Gogh is different from Wilde is different than Mozart is different than Beyonce. We all speak art differently.
Even in the trivial moments, there's deeper connection that builds into the larger projects. From a spontaneous doodle gift or a song personally written by a friend, art never had to be a grand show. Speaking to one another usually isn't. It's about the connections made, regardless of how perfect or beautiful they are. It's about the people, not the product.
Sometimes it's those little things that make the world look just a little bit prettier.