Henri Nouwen NOW and THEN Podcast
Through his writings, Henri Nouwen has long been a mentor and spiritual director for me, as I know he has been for many of you. I recently had a chance to be the guest on the Henri Nouwen NOW AND THEN Podcast, hosted by Karen Pascal, who is a brilliant filmmaker and also the executive director of the Henri Nouwen Society.
We had a wide-ranging conversation about Henri, the work at Renovaré, my music, the invitations hiding in grief, the critical importance of the arts, and the hope we can hang on to even as COVID lingers. Here’s an excerpt from the transcript on the topic of creativity:
Karen: Why do we need creatives? Are they in fact, the “Canary in the coal mine” at this point? Tell me about that important role of the creative, whether it's the musician or the artist, what do you see?
Carolyn: The first thing I would say is that every human being is creative. You know, you run into people that work in very left-brain jobs and they say, “Oh, I'm not creative” and it's not true. The first five words of the Bible are “In the beginning, God created.” This is the very first thing the biblical writers want us to know about the character of God—that he's creative. And then they say, “And guess what, you're made in his image!” You bear his image. So every human being is creative.
The author Gary Molander says, if you look at God's creativity, the way it's described at the beginning of Genesis, God looks out and he sees a void and he fills that void with something of himself.
And so every time we notice a void and we fill that void with something of ourselves, we are exercising the image of God in us, or affirming the image of God in us, working out of that image and being creative. And so there can be a void that there's no dinner on the dinner table and you fill that void with something edible. That is a highly creative act. Or, you know, there's a void at your business and you take something of yourself and the way you see the world, and you fill that void with an excellent business plan. That's highly creative.
So that's the first thing I want to say: Everybody's creative and everybody's called to live into that creativity. But then I would also say some folks are artists. They have specific vocations, in film or music or dance or visual art or drama or writing, whatever it is. And that's one of the ways they're specifically called to fill the void.
And yes, we need those folks. They are so important to us in our journey of becoming human. We could look at a million different ways that they're important. But a couple I would say:
One is this thing we've been talking about: They help us listen. They help us see these glimmers of God's movement in the world. I think it was Frederick Buechner who said “God speaks into and out of the thick of our days,” you know, or Malcolm Muggeridge said, “Every happening, greater small is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message.”
Well, I think artists help us. They help us learn to listen. They go, Hey, look at this, check this out, look at this, look at this, you know, the way the world is cohering or this meaning, or this little glimmer of beauty here. And even if they don't mean to, I think they point us towards transcendence. Even if they have no clue that that's what's going on.
In a real sense, beauty will save the world in that if we pull on the thread of beauty, I think it will always bring us back to the creator. So, they help us look and listen, artists.
And then, I think they also help us keep hope alive in that they help us have the imagination to be able to conceive of new futures, of new ways of living and being together in the world other than the ones that we have now.
And conversely, you use that phrase, “canaries in the coal mine.” Artists seem to be some of the first people to be able to detect when there is something toxic going on in the culture that is stifling out the human spirit, that is working against the flourishing of human beings.
And so even very dark work can have that sort of prophetic, Look out people kind of role.
So yes, we need art in the world … and we need every single person listening to this conversation to know that they're creative and that they're invited to fill the little voids that they notice with something of themselves, as they co-create with God.