Today there are still shipwrecks on Malta, occurring often as refugees risk a crossing of the Mediterranean in vessels woefully inadequate for that task.
Creativity, seen or unseen, is a natural part of the human condition. To not be creative is to not live into the fullness of who we are created to be. Throughout our Campus community, there are as many forms of creativity at work as there are people. We create relationships, conversations, new lives, homes, hospitality, as well as works of prose, art, music or crafts. In other words, this Campus is as much a venue for creativity as the Symphony Hall downtown.
Creativity is also often connected to personal cost. Many authors, writers, artists and musicians produce their most inspired work during difficult times.
There seems to be a profound connection between brokenness and openness in music, art and literature. Perhaps it is in the ‘telling of the tale’ that light can begin to penetrate the darkness of strain and suffering. As Leonard Cohen sang: “There is a crack… in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
In the gospels, when Mary of Bethany came to Jesus to anoint him with costly perfume, its sweet fragrance could only be released when the alabaster jar was broken. Creativity very often happens, not in spite of – but because of – brokenness. It is in going through the difficult challenges life inevitably throws at us that increases our potential for growth in our relationships and pursuits. A broken heart can become an opened heart.
As a Christian, I believe we are made in the image and likeness of God, and with that I believe we have the ability and vocation to be co-creators with God.
Living into our creative abilities isn’t all about painting, writing or sculpting, especially when we do so with an open and enquiring heart. Eckhart Tolle reminded us that we all have the power to create something far more beautiful; “the power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment. You create a good future by creating a good present”. May we all celebrate the many unseen and unsung acts of creativity, beauty and kindness that quietly take place here in our community each and every day.*
A woman in a car pulled up to the toll booth at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. “I’m paying for myself and the six cars behind me.” she says with a smile.
One after another, the next six drivers arrive at the booth, money in hand. “Some lady up ahead already paid your fare,” says the collector. “Have a nice day.”
The woman, it turned out, had read a note taped to a friend’s refrigerator: “Practice Random Kindness.”
The message from the door of that refrigerator is spreading, on bumper stickers, walls and business cards. And as it spreads, so does a vision of guerrilla-goodness.
A passer-by may plunk a coin into a stranger’s meter just in time. A group of people with pails and mops may descend on a run-down house and clean it from top to bottom while the elderly owners look on, amazed. A teenager shoveling snow may be hit by the impulse and shovel his neighbor’s driveway too.
Senseless acts of beauty spread. A man plants daffodils along a roadway. A concerned citizen roams the streets collecting litter in a supermarket cart. A student scrubs graffiti from a park bench. It’s a positive anarchy, a gentle disorder, a sweet disturbance.
They say you can’t smile without cheering yourself up. Likewise, you can’t commit a random act of kindness or beauty without feeling as if your own troubles have been lightened – because the world has become a slightly better place.
And you can’t be a recipient without feeling a pleasant jolt. If you were one of those commuters whose toll was paid, who knows what you might have been inspired to do for someone else?
There are times in our lives when we look around us and are disheartened by what we see. Sometimes we might feel as though we are powerless to make an impact on the situation, but as Mother Theresa once said “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”
Like all revolutions, guerrilla-goodness begins slowly, with a single act. The question is, what are you going to do today?
