Internal Challenges in the Creative Life
The creative life requires 100% commitment, yet offers no guarantees. What gives us the courage to keep bringing something of ourselves into the world, again and again? This reflection explores a paradox that reaches well beyond the lives of artists.
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Don't miss the November 8th SMC event:
Creating from the Soul: A Conversation in Story & Song with Javier Mendoza (aka Hobo Cane)
“There was an immediate community feel –– music, movement, small groups, Tom’s facilitation/storytelling.” – SMC Event Attendee
In preparation for our SMC, Nov 8 event with Javier Mendoza, I’ve been reading about creativity with authors such as Rollo May (The Courage to Create) and Rick Rubin (The Creative Act). I’ve also been listening to interviews with great artists to see what kinds of questions I can ask Javier so that we can explore the creative process together. Last week’s article investigated the external challenges that every singer/songwriter must address. This week, I’m reflecting upon the “internal” challenges that confront artists like Javier. It’s my hunch that this exploration will reveal something important about our shared human condition, and what’s required to live fully human and fully alive.
Internal Challenges in the Creative Life
Last week’s article outlined two stout challenges faced by anyone whose calling is creativity itself. The first challenge was exemplified in Javier’s description of his last week’s work schedule. To summarize, the life of a Creative is a helluva lot of work. It’s also predictably unpredictable.
The second challenge, highlighted by last week’s SMC essay, described the universal experience of obstacles that threaten to terminate a singer/songwriter’s career. That list includes such things as predatory publishing companies; the necessity of publicity, which pulls you away from writing and performing; the scourge of harsh critics; the maw of social media; the looming giant of AI; and more. Think of these two tangible, objective challenges, together (i.e., relentless work + numerous obstacles). Now consider them as universally experienced by anyone in the business of creating and transmitting art. Next imagine them as representing one of the dual poles of a paradox. Namely, the creative life requires 100% commitment. What is the other side of that paradox? A line from the song “Dulcinea,” taken from the musical Man of La Mancha, nicely summarizes it.
“Yet if you build your life on dreams, it’s prudent to recall—a man with moonlight in his hand has nothing there at all.”
The Creative Paradox
According to Rollo May’s creativity research, herein lies the central, internal challenge to the creative vocation. On the one hand, it requires 100% commitment. On the other hand, the Creative is relying upon something beyond the self, even if it is simultaneously experienced as within the self. To put that into stark terms, the thing that the artist is 100% committed to often feels like nothing at all. In the writings of saints, poets, and mystics, this is referred to as “dryness.” For a singer/songwriter, you must return to the creative well again and again, with a hope that there will continue to be something waiting for you there. It seems to me that the requisite virtue required to engage in this Quixotic adventure is nothing short of—grade A, blue ribbon, gold medal—courage.
The Artist’s Crowning Virtue: Courage
Thirty-five years ago, I got to spend a week with David Hassel, who, like Javier Mendoza, practiced the courage to create. The tools of his art? Philosophy and spiritual theology. According to his colleague, Paul Tillich, artists like David are always attempting to reveal the God, who is always just beyond our current understanding of God. As such, like other artists, their explorations very frequently have a way of threatening the established order.
“What’s it like,” I asked him, “when one of your books is not received well?” He had just told me that some of his works took many years to complete. Like other saints I have known, he answered with down-to-earth frankness. “It’s like having your baby rejected.”
At that time, I had never fathered a child. Since then, I know what it’s like when one of my kids bumps into even a minor rejection. It’s why otherwise anally retentive parents can become anally expulsive on the sidelines of their kid’s sporting events. Even a little rejection of your kid feels devastating. A Creative like David or Javier continually offers their gifts with courage and vulnerability in the glare of the klieg lights. And yet, for love of their own particular Dulcinea, they step up again and again and again, holding that glow of moonlight in their hand.
Conclusion
I’m remembering the conversation with David Hassel, because it provides a perfect illustration of the creative paradox. Every Creative is like the story of that mystical pregnant woman in the Book of Revelation (Chapter 12). When she’s in the process of giving birth, another mystical character, a dragon, swoops in to devour her baby the moment it enters the world. The courageous woman, hoping against hope, delivers her child anyway. She is rewarded for her courage. This story concludes with a miraculous intervention, where baby and mother are whisked off into the desert to bond and develop in safety.
Every Creative, whether David Hassel, Javier Mendoza, or you or me, is like this woman. Every act of creativity is a bringing forth in hope. Spiritual writers like David Hassel, Paul Tillich, or, for that matter, Paul of Tarsus, view hope in a dynamic relationship with love. Every act of love is, in some measure, an act of creativity, bringing a unique texture of Beauty into the world. Will it be received? Nurtured? Rejected? Thoughtlessly devoured and discarded? As such, anyone who brings forth in hope, by loving, courageously stands in the creative paradox.
Dialogue and Discussion Questions:
Longtime SMC readers know that “the Dialogue” section of this article is set aside for a good conversation over a cup of coffee—with a friend, with a group, or just with yourself! As always, feel free to share your reaction or reflection in the “Comments” section below.
Remember a particularly creative time in your life. If you are sharing with a group or dialogue partner, just tell the story of that time. Describe the vulnerability of that time. How did you find the courage to create?
How is Creativity calling you these days? And how are you responding?
To ask that a different way: Do you get little inklings of ways you could be risking yourself a little more?
What gets in your way when it comes to loving with vulnerability and courage?
Who in your life calls you to greater vulnerability and greater creativity? How do they do that?
What have you created or co-created that makes you proud?
Please share with the SMC community your thoughts and/or reflections in the comments below.
Comments