Singing This World Down to Size

On creative expression in an age of overwhelm

As I read so many commentaries on current events now, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and inadequate to answer the many urgent calls of the world. What should I do next? Am I doing enough? How is (this or that person) managing to function?

I find myself frequently reaching for the Serenity Prayer (which I’m sure you know, but always bears repeating) “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” as well as slogans from the 12 Step programs such as “Easy Does It,” “First Things First,” and especially (for me) “Progress, Not Perfection.” New wisdom along these lines is always springing up, such as Nkosi Johnson’s “Do what you can / with what you’ve been given / where you are / in the time that you have” (shared by Dr. Rick Hanson and to which I’ve made up a little tune…and you could, too!).

For me, over the years but especially now, nothing has been more effective at “right-sizing” an overwhelming world as creative activity. For me, that’s mostly songwriting but also includes painting and drawing and almost any form of writing. (Maybe this explains why so many people are sharing so much on so many platforms all of the sudden.) Oh, and taking pictures of beautiful flowers! But how you find creative renewal is completely up to you. As Kurt Vonnegut once said:

“. . . Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.”

He also said (elsewhere I think) “the arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.”

Yes. Creative activity teaches us to live fully in the moment, to stay focused on the next right thing (activism included), to praise beauty and uphold Reality, to search our hearts for what is truthful and then (perhaps) to share it with others in service. It can connect us to the Something More (call it God, True Self, Love, the Universe…) that is eternally transforming everything and bringing new life into being no matter what.

Also, when we’re not “creating” it (because I don’t think it’s actually “us” that does), simply enjoying the beauty we enjoy is a radical (radical = root) act of resistance: resistance to hopelessness, to nihilism, to today’s death-dealing deniers of real love and real suffering. (You know who they are.)

With that, here’s an end-of-day song, with gratitude to all of you for listening and responding to the world in your own creative and compassionate ways (with a special and very warm hello to new followers and subscribers)!

Much love,

Lynn

P.S. Listen for the robins making a surprise star appearance at the end of the song!

Singing This World Down to Size

This world's an overwhelming place,
moving at this reckless pace
When it gets too much for me
I need a gentle remedy

When I've done what good I can
With this one heart, with these two hands
You'll find me playing lullabies
Singing this world down to size

From space the Earth's a tiny gem
with no such thing as us and them
But down here as we're living large
we darken even the shining stars

(Chorus)

I pray someday we'll set things right
For we are not larger than life
When all this smoke clears from our eyes
we'll love this world right back to size.

(Chorus)

Notes on inspiration for a few lyrics:

“We are not larger than life” and humility in general - See Parker J. Palmer’s Substack post “Delusions of Grandeur are Doing Us In” from May 16th.

“From space the Earth’s a tiny gem, there’s no such thing as us and them” - inspired by this widely-shared Facebook post in which astronaut Ron Garan described the “overview effect” of seeing the Earth in proper scale.

“When all this smoke clears from our eyes” - As of this writing, more than 200 wildfires are currently burning in Canada. This fact alone calls into question our continuing investment in fossil fuel infrastructure as well as our increasing use of Internet-based forms of communication, which in themselves (including what I’m doing here) are contributing to the climate crisis. With that in mind, I’ve taken the teeny step today of linking the video to YouTube instead of uploading it, which I hope works just as well. Thanks so much again for watching and listening!