WEBVTT - Love, Happiness, and Creativity: An Essay 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:07.910 Welcome to the habit podcast conversations with writers about writing. 0:00:07.940 --> 0:00:12.200 I'm Jonathan Rogers, your host. I'm going to try something 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.440 new here at the Habit podcast. Instead of an interview, 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.420 I'm going to read you a little essay I wrote. 0:00:17.450 --> 0:00:20.060 I presented a version of this essay as a talk 0:00:20.060 --> 0:00:24.410 for The Rabbit Room's 2024 House moot event. It's called love, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:30.770 happiness and Creative Work. The music you hear every week 0:00:30.770 --> 0:00:34.310 on this podcast is Diamonds by Taylor Leonard. It's a 0:00:34.310 --> 0:00:36.770 song I love, and I especially love this line from 0:00:36.770 --> 0:00:41.089 the chorus. You are not an afterthought. Love himself dreamed 0:00:41.090 --> 0:00:44.360 you up. That idea is the starting point for this 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.240 essay about love and creativity. It's also going to be 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:48.800 the ending point, and I'm going to hit it a 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:51.890 few times in the middle too. You are not an afterthought. 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:56.900 Love himself. Dreamed you up probably ten years ago. Maybe 0:00:56.900 --> 0:00:59.510 further back than that. I attended a talk by the 0:00:59.510 --> 0:01:03.920 mathematician and apologist John Lennox. He suggested that the fundamental 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.950 difference between an atheist and a theist is that an 0:01:06.950 --> 0:01:10.100 atheist believes that matter gave rise to mind, and a 0:01:10.100 --> 0:01:13.940 theist believes that mind gave rise to matter. I'm quite 0:01:13.940 --> 0:01:16.459 sure he wasn't the first person to articulate that idea, 0:01:16.459 --> 0:01:19.069 but he was the first person I ever heard articulate it, 0:01:19.069 --> 0:01:21.650 and I've thought about it quite a bit ever since. 0:01:22.250 --> 0:01:26.540 So again, for an atheist or a materialist somehow matter 0:01:26.540 --> 0:01:29.780 organized in such a way that it gave rise to minds. 0:01:29.780 --> 0:01:32.330 And for a theist of any kind, whether a Christian 0:01:32.330 --> 0:01:34.940 or some other kind of theist, there was a God 0:01:34.940 --> 0:01:38.990 who had an idea, and that idea ultimately became the universe. 0:01:39.860 --> 0:01:44.780 Josef Pieper, paraphrasing Thomas Aquinas, wrote, the essence of things 0:01:44.780 --> 0:01:48.200 is that they are creatively thought. That's a remarkable thing 0:01:48.230 --> 0:01:51.320 to think about. The essence of a thing is not 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:55.280 its atoms or its molecules or its cells. The essence 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.820 of a thing is that it was creatively thought. Everything 0:01:58.820 --> 0:02:01.310 that exists in the universe exists because God thought it 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:06.030 was a good idea. Love himself dreamed you up. He 0:02:06.030 --> 0:02:09.870 also dreamed up trees and porcupines and cities and music. 0:02:09.900 --> 0:02:12.420 God thought all those things were a good idea. And 0:02:12.419 --> 0:02:16.020 that's why they exist. And by the way, you are 0:02:16.020 --> 0:02:19.290 able to think about things. Your mind can engage with 0:02:19.290 --> 0:02:23.160 things because those things were thought first by God. Things 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.520 are intelligible to your mind because things are mind shaped. 0:02:26.550 --> 0:02:29.910 Everything you've ever thought about God thought about first. And so, 0:02:29.910 --> 0:02:32.760 in a literal sense, we are always thinking God's thoughts 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:36.210 after him. You've probably heard that phrase before thinking God's 0:02:36.210 --> 0:02:38.580 thoughts after him. I've seen it used in a few 0:02:38.580 --> 0:02:42.450 different contexts, starting with a sort of Christian world and 0:02:42.450 --> 0:02:45.990 life view movement. I want to think about the world 0:02:45.990 --> 0:02:48.150 the way God thinks about the world, or I want 0:02:48.180 --> 0:02:50.970 to judge matters of, say, morality, the way God judges 0:02:50.970 --> 0:02:54.330 matters of morality. That's one way to to think about 0:02:54.330 --> 0:02:57.630 the phrase thinking God's thoughts after him. I think the 0:02:57.630 --> 0:03:01.650 phrase thinking God's thoughts after him originated with Johannes Kepler, 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:05.610 the 16th and 17th century astronomer who described science as 0:03:05.610 --> 0:03:09.060 thinking God's thoughts after him. God thought the universe into being. 0:03:09.060 --> 0:03:12.209 And so when we're doing scientific work, in Kepler's case, 0:03:12.210 --> 0:03:15.390 understanding the way planets and the stars move, we're thinking 0:03:15.389 --> 0:03:19.380 God's thoughts after him. I've already suggested that in one 0:03:19.380 --> 0:03:22.320 important sense, we can't help but think God's thoughts after him, 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.680 because everything you've ever thought about was God's thought before 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.950 it was a thing. But also, I want to consider 0:03:28.950 --> 0:03:31.920 the possibility that to love is to think God's thoughts 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.740 after him. The word love is used in a lot 0:03:34.770 --> 0:03:37.350 of different ways, right? I love my wife. I love 0:03:37.350 --> 0:03:40.320 my children. I love my friends. I love sad old 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.620 country songs. I love Shakespeare's King Lear, I love watermelon. 0:03:44.070 --> 0:03:46.290 All right, I'm not going to get pedantic about the 0:03:46.290 --> 0:03:49.800 difference between agape love and phileo love and Eros love. 0:03:49.830 --> 0:03:51.990 Nor am I going to scold anybody about using the 0:03:51.990 --> 0:03:55.290 word love too loosely. Rather, I want to pay attention 0:03:55.290 --> 0:03:57.420 to what all those uses of the word love have 0:03:57.420 --> 0:04:02.240 in common. As Josef Pieper says, in every conceivable case. 0:04:02.270 --> 0:04:06.350 Love signifies the same thing as approval. So no, I 0:04:06.380 --> 0:04:08.120 don't mean exactly the same thing when I say I 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.540 love watermelon and my wife and King Lear, but I 0:04:11.540 --> 0:04:14.330 do at least mean that I approve of them. As 0:04:14.330 --> 0:04:17.690 Peter points out, approval derives from the Latin word Probus, 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.230 which just means good. So then to approve of or 0:04:21.230 --> 0:04:23.270 to love a person or a thing is to say 0:04:23.270 --> 0:04:26.239 it is good that you exist. It's good wife that 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.870 you exist. It's good friend that you exist. It's good 0:04:29.870 --> 0:04:33.920 watermelon that you exist. I don't think it's a stretch 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.460 then to offer this working definition. To love is to 0:04:37.490 --> 0:04:40.040 say God thinks it's a good idea that this person, 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.160 or even this thing exists. And so I think it 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.000 is to love himself. Dreamed you up, love himself, thought 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.850 you were a good idea. And he wasn't wrong about that. 0:04:50.180 --> 0:04:52.640 To love is to agree with the God who made 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:55.849 the beloved. When you love a child, you affirm the child. 0:04:55.850 --> 0:04:59.120 You say it's good that the child exists, but also 0:04:59.150 --> 0:05:01.969 you affirm the child's maker and the whole plan that 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.660 resulted in this child's existence. In doing so, you align 0:05:05.660 --> 0:05:08.060 your will with the will of the maker who thought 0:05:08.060 --> 0:05:11.270 that child was a good idea. I know you've heard 0:05:11.270 --> 0:05:14.150 this idea before, that love is not an emotion. It's 0:05:14.150 --> 0:05:18.529 an act of the will. Well, yes and amen. Pieper 0:05:18.529 --> 0:05:21.860 says the most extreme form of affirmation that can possibly 0:05:21.860 --> 0:05:25.700 be conceived of is creation, which is very much an 0:05:25.700 --> 0:05:29.659 act of the will. Remember in the creation story, at 0:05:29.660 --> 0:05:32.210 the end of every day, God says it is good. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:35.960 God made that statement after each phase of creation. But 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:40.010 Thomas Aquinas would say that love, that approval, affirmation, preceded 0:05:40.010 --> 0:05:43.130 the creation. So it's not just that God made things 0:05:43.130 --> 0:05:45.739 and then judged them good, it's that he knew they 0:05:45.740 --> 0:05:48.890 would be good. And so he made them. So then, 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:53.870 in creation, love and will are altogether inseparable. Everything exists 0:05:53.870 --> 0:05:56.510 because God wanted it to exist. Because he thought it 0:05:56.510 --> 0:06:00.200 was good. Love himself dreamed you up. And so human 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.989 love is always an imitation and a repetition of the 0:06:02.990 --> 0:06:07.219 love of God. So Pepper, again, he says, the lover 0:06:07.220 --> 0:06:10.370 knows that his affirmation directed toward the beloved would be 0:06:10.370 --> 0:06:13.580 pointless were not some other force akin to creation involved, 0:06:13.580 --> 0:06:17.029 and moreover, a force not merely preceding his own love, 0:06:17.060 --> 0:06:19.640 but one that is still at work, and that he himself, 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:25.010 the loving person, participates in and helps along by loving. Okay, 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.400 I know that was a lot, but let's put it 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.339 this way when you love, you are joining into a 0:06:31.339 --> 0:06:34.099 love that is already in motion, the love of God 0:06:34.100 --> 0:06:38.599 for the creature. That love precedes your love, but also 0:06:38.630 --> 0:06:42.050 the loving and creative act of God is still unfolding. 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.930 Creation is not just something that happened in the past 0:06:44.930 --> 0:06:49.700 and is now finished. Rather, creation is always continuing and 0:06:49.700 --> 0:06:52.549 the human lover, by some mystery has a part to 0:06:52.580 --> 0:06:56.029 play in that creative act. If that sounds overly mystical, 0:06:56.029 --> 0:06:58.789 consider this there are people you love in whom you 0:06:58.790 --> 0:07:01.640 see things that they can't see in themselves as you 0:07:01.670 --> 0:07:04.339 call out those things in them, you help them become 0:07:04.339 --> 0:07:07.010 who they really are. It's the lovers job to see 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:09.500 things in the beloved that the beloved can't see in 0:07:09.500 --> 0:07:13.130 herself or himself. So your love is an echo of 0:07:13.130 --> 0:07:16.850 the love of God. But it's not only an echo, 0:07:16.850 --> 0:07:20.150 it's also a continuation and even an expansion of the 0:07:20.150 --> 0:07:23.060 creative act that God is doing. God allows us to 0:07:23.090 --> 0:07:28.400 participate in his ongoing creation. So there's the argument that 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.910 love is a kind of creative work. Your love for 0:07:31.910 --> 0:07:34.730 the people around you, your love for the world around you, 0:07:34.730 --> 0:07:37.430 is a kind of creative work, because our love affirms 0:07:37.430 --> 0:07:41.120 and agrees with the loving, creative work of God. And 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.360 because God's love and creativity are not past tense, are 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.750 not completed. We are in some way participants in the 0:07:47.750 --> 0:07:50.900 unfolding of the glories of the people we love. That's 0:07:50.900 --> 0:07:54.950 a pretty remarkable thing to think about, isn't it? So then, 0:07:54.950 --> 0:07:57.800 if love is a kind of creative work, can we 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.640 also say that creative work is a kind of love? Well, 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.210 I think the answer is yes. Thus far, I've mostly 0:08:05.210 --> 0:08:09.080 been talking about loving people. It's maybe easier to understand 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.540 some of these concepts when we apply them to people, right? 0:08:11.570 --> 0:08:14.690 As we love the people we love, we participate in 0:08:14.690 --> 0:08:17.870 the unfolding and the expansion of their glories. And also 0:08:17.900 --> 0:08:19.970 the God who began a good work in you will 0:08:19.970 --> 0:08:22.940 complete that work through the people who love you, right? 0:08:22.970 --> 0:08:25.430 God began the work. He's going to complete it. And 0:08:25.430 --> 0:08:28.970 somehow human love is a part of that process. But 0:08:28.970 --> 0:08:31.220 what about the rest of the world? What about the 0:08:31.250 --> 0:08:34.910 not people aspects of creation, which, by the way, accounts 0:08:34.910 --> 0:08:39.230 for most of creation? Well, God loves that creation too. 0:08:39.260 --> 0:08:42.320 And according to Romans eight, the creation itself will be 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.290 liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the 0:08:45.290 --> 0:08:48.410 freedom and glory of the children of God. So just 0:08:48.410 --> 0:08:51.290 as people are moving toward a glorified state, the rest 0:08:51.290 --> 0:08:54.350 of creation is also moving toward a glorified state. And 0:08:54.350 --> 0:08:57.320 we have a role there too. A loving role, a 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.700 creative role. So we can't create out of nothing like 0:09:01.700 --> 0:09:04.830 God can, but we can rearrange the materials that God 0:09:04.830 --> 0:09:06.960 has given us, and we can be a part of 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.990 the process by which creation itself is liberated from bondage 0:09:09.990 --> 0:09:12.690 to decay, and brought into the freedom and glory of 0:09:12.690 --> 0:09:16.170 the children of God. We participate in the divine image 0:09:16.170 --> 0:09:18.300 when we cultivate the goodness of the world in which 0:09:18.300 --> 0:09:21.989 we find ourselves. When I teach writing, I often talk 0:09:21.990 --> 0:09:24.780 to writers about loving their reader. Well. The truth is, 0:09:24.780 --> 0:09:27.660 one of the challenges involved in loving your reader is 0:09:27.660 --> 0:09:30.450 that you don't necessarily know who your reader is. How 0:09:30.450 --> 0:09:33.720 do you love somebody when you don't know who they are? Well, 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:35.610 I think the way you do that is simply to 0:09:35.610 --> 0:09:38.460 love what you love and invite your reader into the 0:09:38.460 --> 0:09:40.979 things that you love. As you affirm, as you agree 0:09:40.980 --> 0:09:46.020 with God that these things were good ideas. As you 0:09:46.020 --> 0:09:48.929 work to enhance the glories of the world, to show 0:09:48.929 --> 0:09:52.469 people the glories of things that you care about. Well, essentially, 0:09:52.470 --> 0:09:54.480 that's a way of tending to the little patch of 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.120 ground that is yours to tend to. You're like the 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.490 gardener who creates a beautiful public garden for the people 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.480 who pass by. He loves those people by loving his garden. 0:10:04.110 --> 0:10:07.740 The theologian Elaine T cherry wrote a book called God 0:10:07.770 --> 0:10:10.830 of the Art of happiness. I ran across this book accidentally. 0:10:10.830 --> 0:10:13.560 I was looking for books about hospitality, but the happiness 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:15.900 books come right before the hospitality books on the shelf 0:10:15.900 --> 0:10:19.800 at Vanderbilt Divinity Library. And I love something she says, 0:10:20.250 --> 0:10:23.820 she writes. Our limited participation in God by virtue of 0:10:23.820 --> 0:10:28.350 our God given creativity, intelligence, and goodness suffices to bring 0:10:28.380 --> 0:10:32.340 other things to their own flourishing by enhancing the well-being 0:10:32.370 --> 0:10:36.810 of creation's materials, both inert and living. We transmit God's 0:10:36.809 --> 0:10:39.900 creative goodness to the things on which we act for 0:10:39.900 --> 0:10:44.010 their gainful use. That use is in turn transmitted to 0:10:44.010 --> 0:10:47.010 those who will use and enjoy them. I know there's 0:10:47.010 --> 0:10:49.020 a lot there. We're going to try to work through 0:10:49.050 --> 0:10:52.530 it here. I love this idea of we have this 0:10:52.530 --> 0:10:58.050 limited participation in God by virtue of our God given creativity, intelligence, 0:10:58.050 --> 0:11:03.329 and goodness. It's limited, and yet that's part of our 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:08.469 image bearing role. Um. As you tend to your little 0:11:08.470 --> 0:11:12.189 patch of ground, you benefit the people who pass through. Okay. 0:11:12.220 --> 0:11:16.839 The idea here that we transmit God's creative goodness, um, 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.520 when we bring things to their gainful use, right. We 0:11:21.550 --> 0:11:24.939 we bring good things to the, the things we've worked on, 0:11:24.940 --> 0:11:26.980 but we also bring good things to the people who 0:11:26.980 --> 0:11:31.240 benefit from them. And I want to emphasize something that, um, 0:11:32.110 --> 0:11:36.370 maybe a slightly surprising she talks about enhancing the well-being 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:43.510 of creation's materials, both inert and living. So that's worth 0:11:43.540 --> 0:11:46.390 thinking about a little bit. Right. The inert aspects of 0:11:46.390 --> 0:11:50.140 the created order? Well, they're part of the created order, too. 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.800 And they have a well-being that we can serve. That 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.250 may not seem self-evident, but think about this. If you're 0:11:57.250 --> 0:12:01.270 a gardener, you're bringing the raw material of creation, some 0:12:01.270 --> 0:12:05.050 of it inert. Right? Soil is inert. Um, but you're 0:12:05.050 --> 0:12:07.600 bringing it toward its perfection, and you're adding to the 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.840 goodness and to the glory and to the wonders around you. 0:12:11.140 --> 0:12:13.990 And in so doing, you're loving the people around you. 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:18.070 And also, we're going to return to this in a minute. 0:12:18.190 --> 0:12:20.439 You're making the world look a little bit more like 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.620 the world you want to live in. I used. I've 0:12:23.620 --> 0:12:25.870 been using the example of a community garden that benefits 0:12:25.870 --> 0:12:28.990 the people in the community, but also it benefits the 0:12:28.990 --> 0:12:33.040 gardener because now the neighborhood has a garden. The neighborhood 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.380 is more like the kind of neighborhood that gardener wants 0:12:35.380 --> 0:12:40.750 to live in. Well, Elaine Cherry uses the language of flourishing, right? 0:12:40.780 --> 0:12:44.709 She speaks of using your God given creativity, intelligence and 0:12:44.710 --> 0:12:48.730 goodness to bring things to their own flourishing. Well, Aquinas 0:12:48.730 --> 0:12:52.120 says essentially the same thing, but he uses the language 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:56.590 of purpose. He says since all things are purposeful, the 0:12:56.590 --> 0:12:59.470 better we advance other things to their proper purpose, the 0:12:59.470 --> 0:13:02.290 more godly we are and the happier we become as 0:13:02.290 --> 0:13:06.500 the persons we are and are becoming. The idea is 0:13:06.500 --> 0:13:09.950 this God had an idea of what any given thing 0:13:09.950 --> 0:13:13.730 was and what it was for before he made it. Therefore, 0:13:13.730 --> 0:13:18.890 everything has a purpose, okay? Everything that was thought is purposeful, 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.540 and then you move toward joy as you advance other 0:13:23.540 --> 0:13:27.829 things toward their proper purpose. As you extend out from 0:13:27.830 --> 0:13:30.050 your own self and see how you can make the 0:13:30.050 --> 0:13:32.540 things of the created order align a little more with 0:13:32.540 --> 0:13:36.920 their purpose. You're affirming and you're agreeing with God's purposes. 0:13:37.429 --> 0:13:40.310 So when we do creative work, and I'm defining creative 0:13:40.309 --> 0:13:44.690 work very broadly here, we're doing a few different things simultaneously. 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.300 One thing we're doing is simply giving voice to or 0:13:47.300 --> 0:13:51.170 drawing the attention of our readers or listeners or audience members, 0:13:51.290 --> 0:13:54.110 the people who pass through our patch of ground. We're 0:13:54.110 --> 0:13:57.410 drawing their attention to the glories of creation. Right? We 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.900 give an account of the hope that is within us. 0:14:00.350 --> 0:14:02.870 When Saint Peter talks about always being prepared to give 0:14:02.870 --> 0:14:05.450 an account of the hope that's within you. I always 0:14:05.450 --> 0:14:08.420 assumed that he was talking about making arguments. Now, I 0:14:08.420 --> 0:14:11.780 think maybe it's more about just affirming, giving an account 0:14:11.809 --> 0:14:14.329 of what it is that seems good about the created order. 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.760 It seems like the world needs that kind of affirmation 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.730 as much as it ever has, to give an account 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.340 of the hope within us. Maybe as simple as saying, 0:14:22.340 --> 0:14:24.500 I have seen these wonders and I want you to 0:14:24.500 --> 0:14:27.350 see them too. It's a way of saying it's good 0:14:27.350 --> 0:14:30.620 that these things exist. God wasn't wrong when he thought 0:14:30.620 --> 0:14:34.940 they were a good idea. Well, maybe along the same lines, 0:14:34.940 --> 0:14:38.030 Wendell Berry wrote, the business of literature, then, is to 0:14:38.060 --> 0:14:41.120 renew not only itself, but also our sense of the 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:46.070 perennial newness of what is perennially new. Yes and amen. 0:14:46.100 --> 0:14:48.859 So that's one role, an incredibly important role of a 0:14:48.860 --> 0:14:52.160 person who's doing creative work. And all good work is 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.010 creative in some sense. Whatever work you do, I hope 0:14:55.010 --> 0:14:58.010 you're always giving a truer account of things than the 0:14:58.010 --> 0:15:01.250 world is giving. Every time you make a good meal 0:15:01.250 --> 0:15:03.560 and serve it to people you love. You're telling a 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:07.440 different story than, say, McDonald's is telling. When you garden, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.350 you bring order to disorder. You're telling a story about 0:15:10.350 --> 0:15:13.260 how the world can be. So you're always telling a 0:15:13.260 --> 0:15:16.770 truer story in your creative work. You're always bearing witness 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.770 to a created order that you didn't make that exists 0:15:19.770 --> 0:15:22.830 without reference to you. Okay. That's one thing you're doing. 0:15:23.190 --> 0:15:27.030 But also when you make, you are also adding to 0:15:27.060 --> 0:15:29.610 the stock of good things in the world, right? You're 0:15:29.610 --> 0:15:32.010 not just pointing to good things that you didn't make. 0:15:32.790 --> 0:15:35.160 And as you stay alert to the wonders of the world, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.359 those wonders inspire you to do. They inspire you to make. 0:15:39.510 --> 0:15:42.600 And yet, as Junius Johnson has said, the wonder you 0:15:42.630 --> 0:15:46.229 create is not the wonder you first saw. You take 0:15:46.260 --> 0:15:48.450 in as much as you can take in. You try 0:15:48.450 --> 0:15:51.600 to give a voice to it. But what you produce 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.730 always turns out to be something different from what you 0:15:53.730 --> 0:15:57.480 took in. That can be frustrating. And yet, when you 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.760 make anything at all, you've added to the stock of 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.940 wonder in the world. So even when your work feels 0:16:02.940 --> 0:16:05.740 like a failure, I hope you'll consider the possibility that 0:16:05.740 --> 0:16:07.990 you've added to the stock of wonders in the world. 0:16:07.990 --> 0:16:11.110 And the wonders of the world are shared property, which 0:16:11.110 --> 0:16:14.290 is to say, as they increase, we all get richer. 0:16:15.220 --> 0:16:17.350 Here's what Thomas Aquinas had to say on the subject. 0:16:17.350 --> 0:16:19.750 And I have to acknowledge Elaine Terry again, because I 0:16:19.750 --> 0:16:22.990 first saw this Aquinas quote in her book, the good 0:16:22.990 --> 0:16:25.870 of one becomes common to many if it flows from 0:16:25.870 --> 0:16:29.320 the one to the others. God communicated his goodness to 0:16:29.350 --> 0:16:32.380 his creatures in such wise that one thing can communicate 0:16:32.380 --> 0:16:36.040 to another the good. It has received two ideas I 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.230 want to make sure you get from this. First, the 0:16:38.230 --> 0:16:40.360 idea of the good of one becoming the good of 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.450 the many. As you put good things into the world, 0:16:43.450 --> 0:16:48.250 those goods become common property. And secondly, God organized the 0:16:48.250 --> 0:16:50.500 universe in such a way that the good that he 0:16:50.500 --> 0:16:53.980 has given to you is communicable to others. And I 0:16:53.980 --> 0:16:56.080 don't just mean communicable, as in you can put it 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.270 into a message that can then be told or sung 0:16:58.300 --> 0:17:02.080 or preached or whatever. Goodness is communicable the way the 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.040 flu is communicable. And so the goodness of God has 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:07.050 blessed you with the gifts that he has blessed you 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.949 with are communicable to others. They can be passed along, 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.510 and as they are communicated, they become shared property. To 0:17:15.540 --> 0:17:18.900 borrow from Lewis Hyde's book, The Gift, intangible goods like 0:17:18.900 --> 0:17:22.080 beauty and hope and love and joy operate in the 0:17:22.109 --> 0:17:25.410 gift economy, not the market economy. And when you give 0:17:25.410 --> 0:17:29.340 away intangible goods, they aren't subtracted from your stock. They 0:17:29.340 --> 0:17:32.730 are multiplied. When you give away love or joy or beauty, 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.850 you have more, not less. If you give away knowledge, 0:17:35.850 --> 0:17:38.400 you don't have less knowledge. In fact, you have your 0:17:38.430 --> 0:17:43.050 knowledge more completely. So again, when you're doing creative work, 0:17:43.050 --> 0:17:44.909 when you are adding to the stock of wonders in 0:17:44.910 --> 0:17:48.060 the world, you aren't working in an economy of scarcity. 0:17:48.060 --> 0:17:51.150 It's not a zero sum game as you do good work, 0:17:51.180 --> 0:17:53.490 as you bring other things and other people to their 0:17:53.490 --> 0:17:57.449 own flourishing, the good you add becomes common to many. 0:17:57.450 --> 0:18:01.380 The flourishing that you give to others becomes your own flourishing. 0:18:01.619 --> 0:18:05.350 So here's Elaine Cherry again, acting on things for their 0:18:05.350 --> 0:18:08.860 good advances, their purpose. And as this happens, we are 0:18:08.859 --> 0:18:13.270 also improving. Enhancing the flourishing of others enhances our own. 0:18:13.300 --> 0:18:17.170 This is enjoying ourselves and being happy in life. In 0:18:17.170 --> 0:18:23.140 addition to being godlike, living excellently is simply pleasurable. So 0:18:23.140 --> 0:18:25.600 as you affirm and agree with and participate in the 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.689 loving creativity of the God who dreamed all this up, 0:18:28.690 --> 0:18:30.850 the world you live in starts to look more like 0:18:30.850 --> 0:18:34.840 the world you want to live in. Along the Camino 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.619 de Santiago, the pilgrimage route in Spain, there's a monastery 0:18:38.619 --> 0:18:41.859 called Iraci that's quite famous among the pilgrims who pass 0:18:41.859 --> 0:18:45.970 through all along the Camino ends in hostels and villages, 0:18:45.970 --> 0:18:48.879 provide water fountains for the hot, thirsty, dusty travelers who 0:18:48.910 --> 0:18:52.750 are walking through. So, like many of the hospitable locals 0:18:52.750 --> 0:18:56.590 along the route, the monks at Iraci provide a water fountain, 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.000 but also they provide a wine fountain. The monastery has 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.510 its own vineyard, so the monks invite pilgrims passing through 0:19:04.510 --> 0:19:07.270 to fill up a cup of wine. At the wine fountain, 0:19:07.540 --> 0:19:10.540 there's a sign at the fountain that translates Pilgrim. If 0:19:10.540 --> 0:19:13.540 you want to reach Santiago with strength and vitality, drink 0:19:13.540 --> 0:19:17.439 from this great wine and toast to happiness. It's a 0:19:17.470 --> 0:19:21.040 kindness to provide water to those passing through. But wine? 0:19:21.070 --> 0:19:24.520 That's just prodigal, right? The monks have created this little 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:27.910 outpost of the kingdom of heaven where wine flows like water. 0:19:28.330 --> 0:19:31.000 I love that image. I love it for the pilgrims, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:33.760 but I especially love it for the monks. The people 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:37.810 who pass through. Well, they're just passing through. But the monks, 0:19:37.810 --> 0:19:40.750 they live in a place where wine flows like water. 0:19:41.020 --> 0:19:43.300 And don't you think they love that? Don't you think 0:19:43.300 --> 0:19:45.070 they love living in a world where that kind of 0:19:45.070 --> 0:19:49.630 prodigality is an everyday occurrence? Again, this is the economy 0:19:49.630 --> 0:19:52.150 you live in when you do creative work. Your little 0:19:52.150 --> 0:19:53.800 patch of ground is a blessing to the people who 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.909 pass through, and that's gratifying. But just as importantly, you 0:19:57.910 --> 0:19:59.800 get to live there. You get to live in this 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:01.450 place that looks a little bit more like the world 0:20:01.450 --> 0:20:04.990 you want to live in. It's good that you exist. 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.730 Love himself dreamed you up. So I hope you'll go 0:20:07.730 --> 0:20:11.210 out and do some good work. Make some beautiful things. 0:20:17.060 --> 0:20:20.120 The Habit Podcast is brought to you by the Rabbit Room, 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.960 where art nourishes community, and community nourishes art. You can 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:27.350 support their work including this podcast, by becoming a member. 0:20:27.380 --> 0:20:33.290 Visit rabbit room.com/membership. Special thanks as well to Taylor Leonard 0:20:33.290 --> 0:20:35.660 for letting us use her song diamonds as the theme 0:20:35.660 --> 0:20:38.629 music for The Habit podcast. You can learn more about 0:20:38.660 --> 0:20:43.460 Taylor and follow her work at Taylor leonard.com. The Habit 0:20:43.490 --> 0:20:46.550 membership is a library of resources for writers by me, 0:20:46.580 --> 0:20:49.820 Jonathan Rogers. More importantly, the habit is a hub of 0:20:49.820 --> 0:20:53.000 community where like minded writers gather to discuss their work 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.760 and give each other a little more courage. Find out 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:57.770 more at the habit.co.