Brandon Heath loaned me his Harley while I’m here in Nashville. We worked overnight last night, so I slept late and then took the bike out through the hills and ended up at a high view where Vanderbilt University has placed a small observatory to study the stars. I left my phone back at the house, and my computer and any books or work. The people at Vanderbilt took the shell off the top of one of the old telescopes and suspended it from the trees, over a concrete picnic table. The trees were past orange and dead leaves laid over the crest of the hill so squirrels scurrying from tree to tree sounded like they were trapped inside potato-chip bags. I think maybe God had a hell of a good time making that place, scooping the smooth hills up in the palm of his hands, scattering the seeds, breathing life into the critters. I wondered if He ever longed to come back to that place, or whether He remembered it at all. Maybe He’ll go strolling through the woods of Tennessee some day and remember it like a line in a novel He wrote thousands of years ago, and [...]
Today I read an article on a blog about a creative project, and how some people liked it and some people didn’t, and I kept wondering, when I was reading the comments from people who didn’t like it, why their response was to comment about not liking it rather than to create something better. Nobody stands around a negative comment and talks about how great it is, or how well it’s written, or how it’s going to change the world. But then I also understand why people do and say such things. It’s hard to create things. It takes confidence and resources, two things that don’t come easily or naturally. And also, there is an appropriate season for finding our identities, for trying on movies and bands like clothes in an attempt to figure out who we are. Perhaps we should not put our energy into criticism, we should accept the challenge to squash what we do not like by creating something better. And when we have done so, we will realize how hard it was to create the thing we dismissed so easily. Sooner or later, though, we have to create. We have to go and make something with [...]
Good morning to you. As promised, our first Movie Monday update: You can follow the movie madness much more consistently at the movie’s website www.bluelikejazzthemovie.com
