The Imagination Superhighway

On Christmas Day I received a book entitled "A Joyful Theology" by Sara Maitland. Ms. Maitland is a novelist. Having read the book I wish that all the theology that I had to read in seminary had been written by novelists! (or anyone who really knew how to write) It's a wonderful book. It's hilarious, witty, serious, thoughtful, and engaging.

I came across this in her book:

M. Eiffel, an eminent French engineer of the nineteenth century, proposed to build a tower for the Grand Exhibition in Paris. His plans were not moderate: the tower would be the last word in contemporary engineering-- it would involve fifteen thousand steel girders, and over seven million threaded rods, held in place by two and a half million bolts. It would be the tallest structure ever built in Europe (the previous claimant to this glory was Lincoln Cathedral spirit, which had fallen down more than three hundred years before). It would be so tall and so delicately constructed that it would actually weigh less than the cylinder of air that encompassed it. It would be tous qu' y a de chic and modernity.
He drew up the plans. The exhibition committee was keen. A site by the Seine, at the bottom of the Champ de Mars, was selected; subscriptions were raised...Then Monsieur E his a substantial snag: no construction company would build it for him. It was held that erecting a structure more than seven hundred feet high was scientifically impossible and probably blasphemous as well. It would fall down and their souls, together with their professional reputations and their pocket books would be put at risk.
There is something intrepid and unstoppable and many of those high Victorian engineers. Eiffel was no exception: undaunted, he became his own site foreman and advertised up and down the length of rural France for acrobats, tightrope walkers, circus professionals who could, he thought, understand his vision and have the nerve to act it out.
He was right. We see the result still, the epitome of Paris, serene, elegant, bold, floating over the river and displayed on several million post cards.
The Eiffel Tower was built by acrobats and tightrope walkers; engineers and philosophers of balance; artists of the body.

A few years ago people talked about the "superhighway" of the internet. Reading this reminds me of the superhighway I want to ride on. That is the Imagination Superhighway or the Inspiration Superhighway.

I kept thinking of a post that I wrote last year after the death of young Brennan Marsh. I entitled it "No Wasted Meetings." As I sat in the meeting today I realized that this was one of the meetings I had to get out of. And I will. The imagination and the inspiration were small. Perhaps Edison was right -- maybe this life is mainly perspiration...but even when I have perspired most heavily it has often been an occasion of delight. I remember throwing hay out in the fields of the Lammers Farm in Huntingburg, IN -- laughing and telling stories as we walked alongside the wagon and tossed the bales on. Later we would be up in the barn stacking the bales -- that's when the perspiration would really come -- blinding my eyes as my contacts filled with salt and the hay swirled around.

Yet in those times we often let our imaginations run wild. We talked about the world we wanted to see, about the dreams we had, the ways we could make those dreams come true. That's a far cry from a meeting where one talks for hours about "what our purpose is or our values are." This is not to demean the meeting. There were really good people there. People who care about many of the same things I do. It's just that we spend so much more time talking about how we communicate what we do that we never get around to...well...actually doing something.

I love Monsier Eiffel's approach -- bring together unlikely people to work together on something. On spiritual development bring together children (the heart of spiritual development is play) -- for worship bring together circus performers (they know how to use their bodies to "SAY" something) -- for economic development get some cooks and gardeners together (they know how to grow things from the ground up and how to take what's grown and make it into a delicious meal!). Now Monsier Eiffel turned to this because all other paths were blocked. Maybe we could turn to his way of seeing things before that. I remember reading in a book years ago about Curitiba, Brazil and it's incredible Mayor (at the time) Jaime Lerner. Jaime fired all the city planners and hired architects in their places (he said he needed people who were actually used to building something). Then when young people vandalized some of the gardens in Curitiba he was met by the police chief who wanted to authorize overtime for the police force. Mayor Lerner told him no -- that instead he would take the money and hire the young people who were vandalizing to be gardeners. He was doing with what was in hand - but using imagination and inspiration to do it.

I recently read the report of the Mayor's Task Force on Crime and Violence here in Indianapolis. It is pretty darn lame. It lacks those crucial ingredients of imagination and inspiration. I lack it to often myself. So I ask for your prayers -- that I will not be a block to imagination and inspiration around me...