Inspiration

It had all the earmarks of a bolt of inspiration, since he literally bolted across the empty band room as far and fast as his long legs could take him.  As I recall, he started plunking out complete chords on the rickety piano before he even sat down, sorting them out like they were melons at the market—yes, that one works, no, that one can’t come next. It was clear he was going back to the start, checking to make sure it was right, then venturing forward to write the next musical sentence.  The bell rang for the next class, and he rushed out as noticeably as he came in.

That’s how our former band director, now a Social Studies teacher, started composing what would ultimately be the featured piece for the marching band’s halftime show.  As a further sign of his creative spirit, he taught an elective a fellow student remembers as Appled Creativity.  He had made three lists of food, and each Thursday, three students brought in a dish made of one random element from each list.  I was in the class next door, and was the beneficiary—well, generally a beneficiary—of any leftovers.

Something similar happened to me one night, when I was cleaning up after dinner.  I’d tried to write a letter of recommendation for one of my college-bound students, but I just didn’t quite know how to start.  The question returned as I slung the dishtowel over my shoulder, when a voice literally gave me the first line of the letter.  I paused and said, why, of course, and went back to cleaning up.  I wrote the rest of the letter the next day, and it all came together rather nicely.

It’s great fun to have ideas come to you like that, since it suggests you’re a little more creative, attentive, and receptive than you think you are.  It can also be the stuff of great legends, like Handel’s creation of The Messiah, which, depending on the story, took only 15 to 24 days to compose.

Dramatic as all this is, it also sells creativity short, since it can sometimes be hard work.  Thomas Edison had a flash of an idea for creating an indoor light source. Bringing it to light (!) proved to be a different story, since he was once asked how many elements he tried before finding the right one.  His response?  About a thousand.

The hard work of creativity gets short shrift, and so does its magnitude.  I once told my son we needed to go into town to get a kickstand for his new bike.  He didn’t want to go, so in the short time I went to get changed, he went into the garage, found a wrench, took the kickstand off his old bike, and put it on his new one—and I didn’t even think he knew what a wrench was, let alone how to use one. Creative genius, even with just a kickstand?  You bet.

Too many of us approach the day thinking it will be more of the same.  That’s understandable, and it may be better to get on with living than sitting around waiting for something to just show up.  But maybe there’s a happy medium, a way to accomplish the day’s needs with a listening ear for something new, fresh, an attitude that isn’t disappointed if it doesn’t come, but delights in it when it does, even if it takes a little work, and even if it’s modest.  Who knows what kind of desserts you could find with that outlook?

Ever Christmas

The strains of Messiah
Driving in a grey December sky
Might be each of my years’ holiest moment.

This likely disappoints God.
Look
I believe He’d say,
I get how great it is
For time with family.
To think a thought
To look out the windows
Of the place you pay too much for
And spend too little time in
To see snow you can just appreciate
And not deal with
Hot cocoa in tow.

I want you to have that
A sense of love Earth can’t provide
That was kind of the point.
But he didn’t just question the teachers for fun
Didn’t stop at learning Joseph’s craft
Wasn’t even sure the end was quite right
But knew the world needed
A different version
Of the sense of love Earth can’t provide
In addition to warm fires
And faithful friends and family.

You aren’t him of course
But do you think there’s a chance
You could get to late January
And hear Handel in the dry cleaner’s welcome
Give your own frankincense 
To the son of your single mother waitress
Witness a world hostility
And understand
Today’s Herrods need healing too?

Of course I want you
To Rise
Shine
For thy light is come
I’m just hoping you remember
I gave you the light in love
And you’re meant to
Rise
Shine
And share it like I did
And long after the tree is down.