When was the last time you made something? Besides your bed or a peanut butter jelly sandwich?
GK Chesterton begins his book The Everlasting Man with an effort to rehabilitate the so-called caveman. Archeology has shown that, far from being unsophisticated, grunting-and-scratching dullards, early humans who dwelled in caves were artists who showed impeccable taste and discernment. Their drawings of horses and reindeer were kinetic and animated, difficult to imitate, and showed an appreciation of line, color, and form. According to Chesterton, this artistic gift is what makes man stand apart from the animals. “Art is the signature of man,” he says. “It is the simple truth that man does differ from the brutes in kind and not in degree, and the proof of it is here; that it sounds like a truism to say that the most primitive man drew a picture of a monkey and that it sounds like a joke to say that the most intelligent monkey drew a picture of a man.”
