Creativity During the Cold
|
Hello Friends, This cold November morning, I’m staring through the bare winter branches outside my window. The branches are festooned with rows of raindrops, hanging on like bright pale jewels. But what catches my attention is a hummingbird on a wire. It is so tiny, it is barely a dark spot on the slender line. Occasionally, it flies up, then quickly returns to its perch. As I paused in my watching to type these words, the hummingbird departed, a squirrel climbed a fence across the street, and in the distance, a crow flew by. Life is everywhere. Leaves decay, making new soil. Worms and insects burrow beneath the leaves, some of them becoming food for robins and crows. Evergreens remain stalwart, insistent on providing shelter for the birds and animals who do not migrate. Even during times of destruction, life abides. Creativity abides. On the topic of creating when times feel cold and hard, remember that Vegas conference I just attended? I wrote about listening to a keynote given by actor, writer, and director Kevin Smith. ...Kevin Smith then proceeded to give the most foul-mouthed commencement speech ever. It was great. In between laughs, Kevin Smith’s pale, grizzled, middle-aged face told the story of his life. Hard work. Pain. Laughter. Trauma. Self-loathing. Movies. Love. A near death from a massive heart attack. A stint in a mental health facility. And kindness. An ocean of kindness. And it was the kindness that he offered us, rolled out on a mighty wave. “Your voice is your currency,” he said. And, in an echo of the great Martha Graham, he expanded on that to say that our unique perspective is all we have, so that is what we must offer. And then he went on: There are two pathways in life, creativity and destruction. “Destruction is easier,” he said. And isn’t that the truth? But still, we must create. In a world filled with destruction, creativity is vital. Without creativity, things wither and die. So today I ask us all: What are you creating? I made the essay public on my Patreon today, if you’d like to read the rest: The Night I Didn't Meet Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith—like me and so many others I know—has managed to keep going for decades, even when the odds were stacked against him. Like the tiny hummingbird and the foraging crows, Kevin Smith keeps responding to life itself. How about you? Best wishes — Thorn
|
T. Thorn Coyle
Hello friends, Believe it or not—and despite the first paragraph—below are more thoughts about hope… As one Gregorian calendar year draws to a close, many of us are gazing into a highly volatile, uncertain future. The US economy seems to teeter on a precipice. With scant oversight and terrified or deported workers, our food supply is both compromised and costly. Environmental regulations are gutted. Families are rent apart. Too many people live in fear of what the next day will offer. This...
Hello friends, “Light is returning, even though this is the darkest hour. No one can hold back the dawn…” – Charlie Murphy & Jami Sieber It’s Solstice weekend as I write this. It is cold outside. There’s flooding not far from here. There are families afraid to go to work or school. There are people hoarding power and wealth who care only for themselves. There are mass shootings. War. There are people fueled by cruelty, hatred, and fear. These are dark times, indeed. These are also times of...
Hello friends, The thing about life is…. It’s a tangle. A tangle of beauty and heartache and love and joy. A tangle of rest and ambition. A tangle of science and wonder. A tangle of trees and insects, flowers and mammals. A tangle of humanity and a tangle of stars. Another word for this tangling is interdependence. Every time I see it mentioned that someone is “self made” I wince. Not one of us is “self made.” We are all dependent on so many networks that we would not survive without. We rely...