Why do some people think that all media, all art, is made and intended for them? Certainly, we can all experience that media or art, and we can form our own opinions on it, but why do some people assume that if they don't immediately relate to the intent of a piece of art that it must be bad or incorrect?

Take the poem "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver. I love Mary Oliver, but that poem doesn't do anything for me. I don't need reminding to be compassionate with myself, especially when I'm in despair or very lonely, so that poem tells me something I already know to do. I can still appreciate the beauty of the poem, but I can also set it aside with an understanding that it's for someone else. That someone else needs to read those words and find permission to be kind to themselves.

The same would be true if I disagreed with the sentiment entirely. No one's singular and solitary experience of the world will match up perfectly with every piece of art ever made. That's partly why art is so powerful: it allows us to enter into experiences we do not or cannot have.

If you want to engage the ideas in that art or critique its presentation, that's one thing. But to sum up its worthlessness in a pithy bon mot and sneer at anyone who finds meaning in it? To toss out an opposing view with all the self-satisfaction and immovable righteousness of an omniscient being? I will never understand that.