I received a letter, recently, from Linford Detweiler. Half of the husband/wife duo who make up Over the Rhine (if you haven't heard their music before, you should stop reading what I have to say--RIGHT NOW--and go look them up), Linford's letters are something that I look forward to with anticipation, then usually don't read for weeks after they come, because I know they're going to be SO amazing, SO beautiful, SO inspiring, that I have to read them at just the right time.
This one was no different.
Linford and Karin are making a new album soon and, consequently, they've been thinking about why they make music. Why create art at all? Visual, written, melodic--all of us who make art must, I believe, step back every so often and think about WHY we create, WHY we work in our chosen medium, WHY we don't just stop pouring our hearts into an image that will probably be misunderstood anyway and instead spend our days watching Soaps.
This is what Linford had to say about it.
"If we leave our songs alone, they call to us until we come back to where we belong."
Mmmm. How many of us answer the question "Why do you write?" with "Because I have to."? I think this is the best reason for writing, and also (in the worst times) the only reason we have left. Because the writing draws us. Because it calls, Siren-like, and we cannot ignore its voice.
Linford goes on, "When we live in the sweet spot of that calling, it gives others (you?) permission to discover the sweet spot of your own calling and live there."
I write because I have to. Because it calls me. Because when I don't, nothing about my life is quite right. Because I know I'm not living in that sweet spot of my own calling if I'm not crafting Story. Because making story is a part of my own story. And I hope that, somehow, my living in my calling draws someone else to live in theirs.
Also, Linford says, creating can grow from loss.
"When we put loved ones in the ground, we find that we lose interest in acquiring stuff. We know we can't take it with us when we go. No, it's not about acquiring, rather it's about what we are able to leave behind. That's what gives life meaning: doing work that you can leave behind, your personal token of gratitude to the world in return for the gift of getting to be alive in it."
What will you leave behind? What is your token of gratitude? Many people create, love and leave children who become good people. What a beautiful gift. Others leave songs. Music. Photographs. Paintings. Sculpture. Story. A memory of great pie and a listening ear. Whatever it is that you have to give, whatever it is you're called to leave behind--do that until you're done. Leave something beautiful. Leave something real.
And don't forget to ask yourself, from time to time, why it is that you're creating, anyway.
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