Can art change a person?

Let’s consider all forms of art including visual, performing, and literary arts.

Though I am not a professional, my life has always included theatre. I act and direct. Theatrical arts have formed me. A person of importance told me I’d found my “life role” when she saw me play Dr. Martin Dysart in EQUUS by Peter Shaffer. The part was momentous for me.

I read, too. In high school, I cried at some scenes from Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and Middlemarch by George Eliot left me speechless. Parts of The Iliad by Homer mesmerized me.

Nothing beats “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot. It rings in my soul. Indeed, it is as close to the divine as has ever been put into words, in my opinion. Studying it brings me closer to god.

I have seen films that transfixed me. A handful of paintings have entered my mind permanently. A few sculptures have moved before my eyes.

During my fifty years, art has played a central role in what I have become. It even changed me on occasion.

Am I daft? Can a subjective thing such as beauty found in words or a visual display of some sort alter a person’s life?