Listen to Mateusz Wolski play his violin, and for a moment or two, presidential politics and other emotional powder kegs are shoved safely to sanity's periphery.

Wolski was one of a half dozen stunningly talented musicians who performed Tuesday night during a fundraiser for the Jacklin Arts & Cultural Center in Post Falls. The event was the brainchild of local opera matron Marlo Faulkner, who rounded out the spectacular evening with sopranos Christina Kowalski and Dawn Wolski; tenor Christopher Pfund; accompanist David Demand; and booming baritone Aaron St. Clair Nicholson. While we give this group, Marlo, and the event's sponsors a standing ovation, our appeal today is broader than one culturally enriching evening.

It's for dozens of culturally enriching evenings.

Whether you sample any of the region's galleries, museums, or ample offerings of every kind of music imaginable, exulting in the arts is an experience that lifts us above the desperate roar of anger and sorrow so prevalent in society. From that higher plane, inner joy mutes the harsh buzz of negativity. From up there, you can more clearly see what really lies below, and maybe it's not quite as bad as it seemed when you were right in the middle of it. Creating that distance, even if for only an hour or two, is one of the best exercises you can give your heart, mind and soul.

The arts offer us an antidote for much of what ails mankind. You have a right to be miserable; it's your choice. Or you can choose to take a night off and go listen to music that moves you to tears of a completely different kind. Through those tears, somehow the world looks better.