Contemplation & Creativity

I live in LA, where there are, famously, no seasons. Or so I’m told a lot by non-Angelinos who’ve moved here. It’s supposedly a year-round 72 and sunny situation but I can feel the change in the seasons – the shorter days, the cooler mornings and then there’s the proliferation of pumpkin-themed baked goods in the house.

Like many people who go to a job, I spend most of my day indoors, in recycled air and under florescent lights. Mostly in conference rooms and usually in front of a monitor of some kind, either looking at designs or participating in a Zoom conference. At times I can empathize with Michael McKean’s character, Chuck McGill, in Better Call Saul, who believes he has electromagnetic hypersensitivity. There’s just a feeling of disconnect with what’s going on outside in any office, no matter how beautifully designed. 

As I write this essay I’m sitting outside, on a balcony, overseeing the Santa Monica mountains. There’s the wafting citronella scent of a burning candle that keeps the flies at bay; a light breeze; the whirl of hummingbirds; the buzz of the bees coming up from the koi pond and the snorting of my French Bulldog, Momo, at my feet. Yes, it’s bucolic, idyllic, and I’m grateful for not having to put up with the blare of car horns and the thumping of helicopter blades overhead but most importantly I’m grateful for the lack of distraction. I can think. And the irony (or hypocrisy) that I’m writing this essay about disconnecting from screens on a MacBook Air isn’t lost on me but in this case, the interaction with the screen is active – I’m not passively intaking Instagram or Snapchat feeds. 

Thinking. Contemplation. Creativity. Only when you have settled the mind can new ideas arise.

Last week I was fortunate enough to give a speech at a venture capital-run conference in Tucson called Insight IGNITE. The majority of leaders present were from the VC’s portfolio companies, whose focus ranged from cybersecurity to cloud computing to artificial intelligence but there were a few guest company speakers like myself. I spoke on “Building a Design-Driven Culture” but the majority of my speech was really focused on creativity, how to truly unlock it in a corporate environment and make it into practice. I referred extensively to my upcoming book, The Art of Creative Rebellion. Insight IGNITE founder, Emmet Keefe III, had generously commissioned an advance reader copy for each attendee. I wasn’t sure how a speech about design culture would land with this group of no-nonsense entrepreneurs, C-level execs and bankers but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it reverberated deeply with them. After the speech, I found myself signing books and having deep conversations about finding purpose in one’s life and work with these attendees, who again, are at the top of their game in terms of business success. The question is how to maintain a balance between the day-to-day realities and pressures of operationally running a business and making time, well, for actively doing nothing and investing in yourself. My answer is, You can take care of business and yourself – you just need to make it a habit to prioritize time for: meditation; working out; going on hikes; surfing; making ceramics; taking guitar lessons or simply sitting.   

Below is an excerpt from my book about getting back to a state of play, which by definition is active engagement in an activity without purpose. This state of being in the moment of creation is something I feel we all can recall from childhood...

“...Whether this recollection is real or not, it activates a sense of calmness, a glimpse of what is referred to in Zen Buddhism as kenshō: seeing, albeit fleetingly, one’s own Buddha-nature or original face—the non-duality that addresses the separation between oneself and everything else in the world. This mindset of attaining one’s original face is what I’m referring to as creative rebellion; a practice that requires active mindfulness and the stripping down of the inherited stories that we gather as we move through life: our religion, our nationality, our morality, our ideas of success and failure. Once we are laid bare we can consciously choose what stories we want to propagate, what narratives we want to associate with ourselves. 

The creative rebel is one who awakens from the soul-numbing norms of societal and corporate expectations and becomes, ultimately, their true self.”

Contemplation is about reconnecting and remembering one’s true self. Allowing distracting thoughts to fade away –  work can wait for the moment. Being in the now is about being in tune with one’s own biological rhythms, which by extension allows you to connect with nature.

Our ancestors were in rhythm with the changing of the seasons. They had to be, for farming, gathering and surviving the coming of winter; it was a life or death matter.  They walked the land, felt its transformation first-hand through the soles of their bare feet, and their bodies adjusted accordingly. During the autumn trees lose their leaves and everything retreats down into the earth, life energy withdrawing into the roots, hibernating until the cold season moves through. 

I would posit that the invention of so many fall through winter holidays, from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas and Chanukah to New Year’s Eve celebrations were a way to help humans get through the barren days, shorter hours of light and probably stave off Seasonal affective disorder (which, ironically, the holidays may just exacerbate). 

As my wife advises, perhaps we should consider the opposite. Say no to too many dinners, parties, and get-togethers. Spend time with your immediate family or alone with nature. Embrace the changes that are happening, rather than distracting yourself from it with social media. I’ve found that during these times of non-distraction, great ideas come to the fore that I can execute in the spring. This is a time for reflection on the past year, recovering from the work done and accomplished, and planning, in a very open, dreamlike way, the projects that can be started as the days start to lengthen once again. 

My wife explained the ancient concept of “Imbolc” to me. It was originally a pre-Christian, Gaelic celebration of the beginning of spring, held on February 1st, halfway between the winter and spring solstices. My wife went on to explain that Imbolc is the first awakening, when the green tip of a plant, breaks its way through the soil after a winter’s sleep, stretching towards the sun. And we, like plants, will now be able to take the reserves of contemplation and dreams from the cold seasons and express them in the early months of transition in the new year, as the earth’s axis tilts us once again towards warmth. 

John

What I’m reading:

The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger. A warm, vulnerable, and very readable memoir by the CEO of the Disney Corporation. 

What I’m experiencing:

Sankai Juku performing Meguri: Teaming Sea, Tranquil Land at Center for the Art of Performance, UCLA. 

“Over the course of the past 35 years, the work of Ushio Amagatsu for his Tokyo-based, all-male company Sankai Juku has become known worldwide for its elegance, refinement, technical precision and emotional depth. Amagatsu’s contemporary Butoh creations are sublime visual spectacles and deeply moving theatrical experiences. As one of the premiere choreographers at work in the world today, the arrival of a piece by Ushio Amagatsu is a much-anticipated event in the North American dance landscape. Sankai Juku returns to Royce Hall with one of Amagatsu’s strongest works, Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land. Set against an upstage relief of sea lily fossil images, this exquisite piece is a poetic meditation on the passage of time as symbolized by the circulation of water and the seasonal transformation of the earth.”