In the midst of the mess
29/09/16 05:26
Over two million people have watched Tim Harford TED talk in which he tells the story of Keith Jarrett arriving at the concert hall in Cologne, Germany, where the piano was completely unacceptable for performance. The pads were worn and harsh and the upper register was tinny. The pedals weren’t working properly. Worst of all, the piano was simply too small for the large hall. He had the concert promoter informed that the concert was off unless a new piano could be obtained. He couldn’t perform on such an unacceptable instrument.
As he waited outside in his car, the concert promoter tried to obtain a different piano. It was too late. There was no one who could move a new instrument in with such a late notice. The promoter, a teen ager who was staging her first concert, went out in the rain and pleaded with Jarrett to play that impossible piano. Somehow that wet and scared teenager convinced him to play.
The audience came, the concert began. Jarrett began playing in the middle registers of the piano and avoiding the harsher, higher tones. He also was trying to compensate for the size of the piano by pounding harder and harder on the base notes. He would repeat his bass riffs in order to emphasize them, straining to make the tones reach the back of the audience. The audience, in turn, moved forward in their seats to hear the music.
The piano was impossible. The situation was impossible. The piano was unplayable.
Within moments, it became clear, however, that something very special was happening. It is an electrifying performance that has incredible dynamic qualities. The audience loved it. And audiences continue to love it. The album that is the recording of that concert is the best selling piano album in history and the best selling jazz album.
Something about the challenge of impossible circumstances brought out the absolute best performance possible. In his book, Harford wrote of the concert, “Handed a mess, [he] embraced it, and soared.”
I try not to use my daily blog as a place to review books. If you’ve checked out my book blog, you’ll see that I’m months behind in writing my book reviews. As I write this morning there is a stack of read, but unreviewed books sitting on the floor next to my desk. What is more, I haven’t read Harford’s book yet.
I just love the title: “Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform our Lives.”
The book is, I have discerned from reviews, an exploration of disruption theory. The theory is that disruption inspires creative thinking. He defends the creative potential of the imperfect, incoherent, crude, cluttered, random, ambiguous, vague, difficult, diverse and even the dirty. I’m pretty sure that is a book for me.
One reviewer comments that in the book Harford cites a story which I’ve known for some time. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a studied and meticulous about his preparation for public speaking. He worked hard on his sermons and engaged in a lot of research. However, on the eve of his scheduled address to the March on Washington he couldn’t get his speech right. He worked late into the night and the speech remained unfinished. He continued to work on it up to the last minute, scribbling notes in the car, crossing out phrases and making changes right up to the moment when he approached the lectern. Then, partway into the speech, he abandoned his notes and began a verbal exposition on a theme that wasn’t even in the prepared notes. “I have a dream . . .” he declared and one of the greatest speeches in human history was delivered.
I can’t imagine how terrified Dr. King was. I can barely stand facing my own congregation when events have kept me from proper preparation of my sermon. I don’t sleep when I am unprepared.
I have, however, experienced first hand the power of disruption to spur the creative process. Some of my best writing has come from days when there were too many interruptions in my thinking. The phone kept ringing, people kept stopping by, conversations ensued which were unplanned and which I had tried to avoid.
I have discovered that my messy desk can be an inspiration for creative work. When it gets too messy, instead of sorting through the papers and books and putting things in the right order, I make piles of the things on my desk and begin to deal with them in the random order into which they fell. My goal is to deal with the contents each piece of paper so that it can be thrown into the trash when I’m finished. No filing. No putting things off into another pile. Complete the task and then move on. The result is that I begin to do tasks in a random order. I make a phone call, followed by filling out a form, followed by delegating a task to another person in the church, followed by getting a bill paid, followed by writing a thank you note followed by whatever task comes up next.
Invariably those days are among the most productive days of work. The disruption forces me to focus in a way that I am unable to achieve when I am working according to a precise and rational plan.
Obviously such conditions wouldn’t work for every person. We have two administrative colleagues who share the same desk and computer. Clutter would make it impossible for either to work effectively. I have colleagues who simply can’t work on a sermon when there are unanswered letters. I know others for whom my messiness is frustrating.
For me, however, there is something creative and empowering about working with a bit of mess. After all, I am a disciple of Jesus - God who comes into the messiness of human life to participate fully in human experience. Our theology is not based on completely neat and rational activities, but rather the most disruptive event in human history.
So, I think I should read Harford’s book. I probably will one day. However, I have vowed to not buy another book until I get through the pile of unread books sitting on top of my printer.
As he waited outside in his car, the concert promoter tried to obtain a different piano. It was too late. There was no one who could move a new instrument in with such a late notice. The promoter, a teen ager who was staging her first concert, went out in the rain and pleaded with Jarrett to play that impossible piano. Somehow that wet and scared teenager convinced him to play.
The audience came, the concert began. Jarrett began playing in the middle registers of the piano and avoiding the harsher, higher tones. He also was trying to compensate for the size of the piano by pounding harder and harder on the base notes. He would repeat his bass riffs in order to emphasize them, straining to make the tones reach the back of the audience. The audience, in turn, moved forward in their seats to hear the music.
The piano was impossible. The situation was impossible. The piano was unplayable.
Within moments, it became clear, however, that something very special was happening. It is an electrifying performance that has incredible dynamic qualities. The audience loved it. And audiences continue to love it. The album that is the recording of that concert is the best selling piano album in history and the best selling jazz album.
Something about the challenge of impossible circumstances brought out the absolute best performance possible. In his book, Harford wrote of the concert, “Handed a mess, [he] embraced it, and soared.”
I try not to use my daily blog as a place to review books. If you’ve checked out my book blog, you’ll see that I’m months behind in writing my book reviews. As I write this morning there is a stack of read, but unreviewed books sitting on the floor next to my desk. What is more, I haven’t read Harford’s book yet.
I just love the title: “Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform our Lives.”
The book is, I have discerned from reviews, an exploration of disruption theory. The theory is that disruption inspires creative thinking. He defends the creative potential of the imperfect, incoherent, crude, cluttered, random, ambiguous, vague, difficult, diverse and even the dirty. I’m pretty sure that is a book for me.
One reviewer comments that in the book Harford cites a story which I’ve known for some time. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a studied and meticulous about his preparation for public speaking. He worked hard on his sermons and engaged in a lot of research. However, on the eve of his scheduled address to the March on Washington he couldn’t get his speech right. He worked late into the night and the speech remained unfinished. He continued to work on it up to the last minute, scribbling notes in the car, crossing out phrases and making changes right up to the moment when he approached the lectern. Then, partway into the speech, he abandoned his notes and began a verbal exposition on a theme that wasn’t even in the prepared notes. “I have a dream . . .” he declared and one of the greatest speeches in human history was delivered.
I can’t imagine how terrified Dr. King was. I can barely stand facing my own congregation when events have kept me from proper preparation of my sermon. I don’t sleep when I am unprepared.
I have, however, experienced first hand the power of disruption to spur the creative process. Some of my best writing has come from days when there were too many interruptions in my thinking. The phone kept ringing, people kept stopping by, conversations ensued which were unplanned and which I had tried to avoid.
I have discovered that my messy desk can be an inspiration for creative work. When it gets too messy, instead of sorting through the papers and books and putting things in the right order, I make piles of the things on my desk and begin to deal with them in the random order into which they fell. My goal is to deal with the contents each piece of paper so that it can be thrown into the trash when I’m finished. No filing. No putting things off into another pile. Complete the task and then move on. The result is that I begin to do tasks in a random order. I make a phone call, followed by filling out a form, followed by delegating a task to another person in the church, followed by getting a bill paid, followed by writing a thank you note followed by whatever task comes up next.
Invariably those days are among the most productive days of work. The disruption forces me to focus in a way that I am unable to achieve when I am working according to a precise and rational plan.
Obviously such conditions wouldn’t work for every person. We have two administrative colleagues who share the same desk and computer. Clutter would make it impossible for either to work effectively. I have colleagues who simply can’t work on a sermon when there are unanswered letters. I know others for whom my messiness is frustrating.
For me, however, there is something creative and empowering about working with a bit of mess. After all, I am a disciple of Jesus - God who comes into the messiness of human life to participate fully in human experience. Our theology is not based on completely neat and rational activities, but rather the most disruptive event in human history.
So, I think I should read Harford’s book. I probably will one day. However, I have vowed to not buy another book until I get through the pile of unread books sitting on top of my printer.