Last week I attended a concert celebration in honor of Billie Holiday at the Pratt Library in Baltimore. Sitting in my auditorium chair before the performance I quietly twiddled my thumbs and people watched as the seats filled in around me. The crowd was in good spirits and the performers were doing some last minute planning up on stage. As one of the performers took up the microphone to offer introductions and get the celebration officially started the audience settled and was prepared for what was to come – some jazz duo music by a pianist and a drummer and then the singer would come out on stage to join in and sing in honor of Holiday.
As the singer left the stage, the pianist and drummer settled into comfortable positions for play. It only took one note from the piano and two beats of the drums for the spine tingling pulses of inspiration to start spreading through my whole body. I realized in that moment how long it had been since I had been to a live musical performance. Then the realization that I was sitting in the presence of a creative act filled me with comfort, hope, and energy. What a gift the two musicians were offering us by allowing us into their moment of artistic expression. This is a big difference between performance arts and visual arts – immediacy with the creative act itself.
Visual arts allow spectators to have an encounter with the outcome of a creative act – which can be a very powerful experience. But performances draw a spectator right into the moment of creation with the artist. This collaboration between artist and audience in a performance piece allows both parties to experience the mystery of the creative process in powerful ways. The artist’s experience feeds off of the creative act itself but also off of the energy and response of the audience. Similarly, the audience simultaneously encounters the product of the creative act offered by the artist while also getting a glimpse of the process.
The act of creation is a unique experience and to be offered a chance to witness and enter into the moment of creation with the performers opens us up to unexpected encounters. As I sat there, taking in the music, with my spine tingling and goose bumps down my arms I was transported out of the mundane and into the extraordinary. My spirit was awakened and I reveled in the joy of the artistic offering.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
That's Theological
A dear friend was in school with me during my first semester in Seminary and did much to help me transition into the world of theological studies. One of the key ingredients to that successful transition was insightful humor. Humor can be a grace-filled gift in many realms of life – but it was an essential aspect of those first few months of serious theological inquiry. Humor had a way of keeping us grounded in ironic reality when we were on the verge of being carried away by our newly acquired theological insights. Yet the grounding that humor provided was also a stepping stone to a broader awareness of the possibility of theological thinking.
In class one evening an excellent professor, in an attempt to assist us over the hurdle of learning to think theologically, began to list words and themes and after each one stated – “that’s theological”. Of course, the helpfulness of this phrase did not occur to my friend and me at the time, we instead took humor and delight in this phrase and carried it with us into our daily living. We would banter and in the middle of whatever we were talking about one of us would say with all seriousness – “that’s theological”. It provided joy without end when we would say it about the most mundane subjects which on first glance have no theological bearing at all – and it still brings a subtle smile to our lips today, years later, when one of us decides to throw it into conversation.
Humor kept the phrase ‘that’s theological’ at the forefront of my thinking about most things – which in turn opened me up to actually thinking theologically about unexpected subjects. I was no longer confined to just thinking theologically within the constraints of the more obvious theological topics but was instead allowed to approach any topic with an eye for theological relevance. I assume that this openness was what my professor was trying to offer us when she offered us the phrase ‘that’s theological’ and I am thankful that the intention of it finally sunk in – even if it was only through humor that I stuck with it long enough to begin to understand.
Humor – That’s Theological.
In class one evening an excellent professor, in an attempt to assist us over the hurdle of learning to think theologically, began to list words and themes and after each one stated – “that’s theological”. Of course, the helpfulness of this phrase did not occur to my friend and me at the time, we instead took humor and delight in this phrase and carried it with us into our daily living. We would banter and in the middle of whatever we were talking about one of us would say with all seriousness – “that’s theological”. It provided joy without end when we would say it about the most mundane subjects which on first glance have no theological bearing at all – and it still brings a subtle smile to our lips today, years later, when one of us decides to throw it into conversation.
Humor kept the phrase ‘that’s theological’ at the forefront of my thinking about most things – which in turn opened me up to actually thinking theologically about unexpected subjects. I was no longer confined to just thinking theologically within the constraints of the more obvious theological topics but was instead allowed to approach any topic with an eye for theological relevance. I assume that this openness was what my professor was trying to offer us when she offered us the phrase ‘that’s theological’ and I am thankful that the intention of it finally sunk in – even if it was only through humor that I stuck with it long enough to begin to understand.
Humor – That’s Theological.
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