Thursday, January 06, 2011

Brother Levi...a gift?



Brother Levi by chrisdgough
I watched a Ted talk today about the origin of  creativity.  It was inspiring, and quite in line with my meager thoughts on the issue.  It was also oddly coincidental to a recent experience.  Just two days ago I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and wrote a song...start to finish, stealing a guitar riff from an old project.  I called it "Brother Levi" and made a quick recording that morning before breakfast (complete with Simon and Levi running around in the background).  Not knowing how to put audio on my blog I made a quick slideshow of Levi and put the song here in the form of a movie...if you want to hear it moments after writing it...recorded on my iphone...(ok ok no excuses!) My eyes did not roll back in my head, and I was not visited by a visible Dickens-esque spirit, but I will say that the idea was just there, and it was a matter of writing it down. Which I did.  1 Samuel mentions that a spirit came upon David and he played soothing music to the angry Saul.  Many songwriters, (Thom Yorke & Bono immediately come to mind, but I've heard it hundreds of times) profess that they even feel guilty at times taking credit for songs that fell in their lap.
The critical question to ask is, "Who should get the credit," for these waves of creativity?  The Christian worldview holds firmly the Holy Spirit's role in  bestowing gifts upon all people, and cooperating with those who respond to revelation.  In our popular culture, people try to steer clear of giving any sort of recognition to God...and so naturally the credit falls to themselves.  Enter the video...
So, it is twenty minutes long, and the speaker is the author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, she puts forth some very compelling concepts...that seem both obvious and crazy...but watch the video...and then let me know if you have ever had the sensation of "receiving" knowledge, or understanding or clarity or wisdom or an artistic boost of some sort.  It's not arrogant to say you have, but then you would know that had you watched the video!

6 comments:

Claire Carey said...

Chris, this is remarkable! You have a gift...I hope you will keep getting up to write when the inspiration comes.

Chris Gough said...

Thanks Claire! And you of all people should totally watch that video...its great, and writers especially would relate to it.

alisha said...

Hi Chris, I just found your blog through Rebekah's lovely new blog. I'm kind of already obsessed with Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk. In fact, I wrote about it this week. I love the part about showing up, how that's all we can do really in the creative -- and spiritual -- process.

Thanks for sharing!

Kristen Gough said...

such a beautiful song (and vocals and guitar-wow!), and such a special recording of it, chris. i am so glad you are writing, and i can't wait to hear more in the coming days. i know you know this, but putting yourself out there totally encourages others to take risks in sharing their gifts and hearts as well. i love that. thank you for sharing this song and your thoughts in this post!

Scott and Kathy Kaseburg said...

So sweet!! I'm so proud of all of you!!

Jenny said...

this is a treasure! and it seriously could not have been recorded any more perfectly...i love it all...the lyrics, your tone, and those sweet little voices...i'm getting teary over here!

this kind of makes me love you chris...and i guess i already did but i don't think i've ever really said it out loud. like a brother. i love you like a brother. sheesh.