Images are a large part of what we are. Our mind creates them by the thousands, based on the input of our senses, and stores them in our memory. From there they are called forth to help us think clearly, visualize new ideas and create new concepts. They are the images of our family, our friends, our world. It would be impossible to overstate how important they are to us.

How we obtained images created by others was very different in the early part of this century and before. When authors wrote their stories, for example, they often lingered awhile, describing in vivid prose what the character in the story was wearing, what the countryside looked like, where the sun was or what the furniture felt like. They were building images.

Painters, too, played an important part. For example, the great western landscapes of painters like Thomas Moran (which will be on display at BYU during the 2002 Winter Olympics) had an enormous impact on eastern society. For the first time the general public could see with their own eyes what Yellowstone looked like and the result was a great national park.

That isn't the case so much anymore. Thanks to modern technology, we are exposed to a huge landscape of imagery. Every television commercial, every photograph, every movie and every TV show is dutifully recorded and stored in our memories. We've all had the experience of seeing a show, or hearing a record, and thinking: I've seen this before.

Which is why it is so important that we try to pre-select the images that we do archive. The thinking process is one of collecting, sorting and storing. The images are going to be part of our experience, with us for a long, long time. They form the basis of our perceptions.

That also imposes a great obligation on those who create images. From a moral perspective, they should create images that help people cope with their lives, that elevate their feelings and give them new insights into the world in which they live. A great tradition of religious art follows this line of reasoning. Most artists and creators of images want their work to move us and advance us. Art has the ability to touch us deeply and inspire us to great works.

Sadly, however, that isn't the case with all imagemakers. Because it's so easy to create images, we are exposed constantly to sights that appeal to our baser instincts, evoked by people driven by darker motives. For them, it's easy to sidestep questions of social or moral responsibility if there is money to be made.

We can't do much about the growing imagery of the world, but we can control what we see and put into our minds. It's our individual obligation to learn what makes good art, to educate ourselves and our families. We can raise our own understanding and thus our standards. This isn't always a simple process; art, after all, changes constantly.

What doesn't change are the underlying standards by which we judge. For that, we have some insights.

Brigham Young, speaking well before the challenges of modern technology, nevertheless gave timeless guidance: "Take pride in educating your minds until you can conquer and control yourselves in everything. Educate your children in all the knowledge the world can give them. God has given it to the world, it is all His. Every true principle, every true science, every art, and all the knowledge that men possess, or that they ever did or ever will possess, is from God." (Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 229-230).

And Joseph Smith offered the standard by which Church members make their choices: "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." (Articles of Faith 1:13.)

The French critic Hippolyte Adolphe Taine wrote in the 19th century, "The production of a work of art is determined by the material, moral and intellectural climate in which a man lives and dies." We can see what the material climate of today's world has produced. It's up to us to add the intellectural and moral dimension that will make it meaningful and praiseworthy.