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Front the editor Can beauty save the world? Dostoevsky thought so. Others have had the same idea. The violence and chaos that characterize human life can be stopped if people learn to respond to the deep and subtle mysteries of music and painting. The events of September 11 have pulled the rug out from under us. We are like that old cartoon character, Wily Coyote, who somehow manages to keep running even after he's run off the edge of a cliff. Then something makes him look down. And when he realizes there's nothing beneath his feet, he plunges with a despairing wail into the depths of the canyon below. That's the situation we are in now. Only moments ago, we assumed we were on solid ground. When the planes smashed into the World Trade Center everybody in the liberal democracies of the West felt the same: whoever planned the attack should be punished. The response was a rare example of unanimity But it was shockingly short-lived. As the absurdities of the war become clear - peanut butter dropped with bombs is just one example - we are starting to realize that we are utterly and hopelessly out of our depth. We, too, are out over thin air. Have we lost our ability to tell right from wrong? We've certainly lost the figures we used to depend on for answers. God is said to be dead, Marx even deader, though either or both could still make a comeback. What, in the meantime, are we to tell our children about the world? What kind of place is it, this floating green and blue ball that we live on? And what about us, all six billion of us? What is important to us? What are we? Everybody has to find their own answers to these questions. One place to look to is the arts, which give glimpses of something that can't be put into words. Artists and writers and musicians are different from other people only in that they look at things from a different perspective. And new perspectives are what we so desperately need. Art is not just the icing on the cake. The ability to create and respond to it are resources of inestimable value in trying to understand the world. Now, more than ever, we need to make wise use of them. Michael Boxall KIDS CRAFTS ON NORTH FREE S H O R E Christmas Capilano Mall and Lewiscraft are pleased to offer free kids crafts. Join us at Lewiscraft and create something special for 1 - 4pm on December 1 st, 8th, and 15th. from Saturday, November 25th, Capilano M a l l 9 3 5 M A R I N E DRIVE N O R T H V A N C O U V E R FOR C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E C A L L 9 8 0 - 8 5 6 1 2 November | December