Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Inspiration comes from so many places…



… both from the high art of past history and the current projects of friends and family… layered soliloquies, photographs that have more movement than most movies… acoustic songwriters singing so delicately that a single breath would cause the whole song to disintegrate… deconstructionist jazz renditions of popular songs…



Or for a slightly more adventurous example listen to this song long enough to get to the melody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFSNR8t5KdY

… I recently heard the story of a teenager with synesthesia, the type where she experiences tastes when she hears words. She talked about how each word has its own taste and after a short discussion the interviewer asked her, “How would you feel if you woke up one day and suddenly weren’t a synesthete any longer?” The girl responded, “I suppose it would be like going from seeing the world in color to only seeing the world in black and white.” And I marveled…

… the girl used such varied and interesting vocabulary, which seemed peculiar at first until I realized that she delights in wordchoice in ways none of us will ever understand…



… I’m inspired by the possibilities of video games, how developers are embracing it as a new art form, telling stories, using interactivity and community to encourage casual gamers to experience new things… imagine a movie you can help direct, a painting you can walk around in, a novel that updates with current events and trends…

… inventions both useful and useless, countless working gears to bring innovative new ideas into reality… that place where quirky meets ingenious and one idea changes the way all of society lives…



…I was told once that astronauts doing spacewalks must constantly keep an object in view or else they will lose a frame of reference. I don’t know if that’s true, but the person continued to explain that if they lose all frame of reference they will suddenly recognize how unbelievably fast they’re travelling in the openness of outer space. As the story goes, an astronaut experienced this very sensation for only a split second yet for years he has been dreaming of how hauntingly beautiful that moment was…



…I’m inspired by so many different moments in life… people surprising themselves with unexpected self-expressions, how something as simple as hitting icicles can bring so much satisfaction…

…yet the most inspiring art ever created can’t compare to the beauty of what God can do in a single life. I’ve watched God redeem the broken, transform the hopeless into the vibrant. All the above stories and art pieces might provide momentary smiles but nothing, absolutely nothing compares to the awe I feel towards the God of the universe. He is the ultimate worker of mysteries, the supreme Artist and Creator. It’s to the point where I can’t imagine life without His truths – how muted everything would seem, how pointless. Glory to God that He continues to reach out to us where we’re at and fills our lives with unearned blessings.