The Wave

Virgil Abloh, Rick Rubin, and My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on How to Do Impactful Things

– 7 minute read –

I’ve always envied people who could hear directly from God. Those super saved folks who say God gave them a special revelation, instructing them what to do and how to live. The only time I can confidently say I had an experience like that was sometime in middle school when I swear God told me to get baptized in a dream. But sometimes I feel like that doesn’t even count. Getting baptized is Christianity 101. God was probably mad he had to leave his high perch in heaven and make His way into my little old dreams just to get that done.

So during college, in a feverish attempt to better experience God, I cleverly ordered a book named “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”. I regrettably can’t recommend the book seeing as I didn’t actually finish it, but in the few pages I did read, the author suggested an alternative approach to experiencing God and doing His will. Rather than praying for a special revelation directly from God with unique instructions on what He wants you to do, stop, look around, and open yourself up to what God is doing around you – in your community, in your school, at your job – and think: how can I best join God in what he’s already doing?

. . .

In his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin positions creativity as a way of living and interacting with the world rather than a specific output as it’s typically viewed. Core to this creative way of being is tuning your awareness to the creative heart of the universe – the same heart responsible for the seasons and flower blossoms as much as the defining culture of an era. As artists then, we are not the originators of creative works but rather vessels for the creative heart of the universe. We don’t create something new, we tune into what already is and give it voice and form.

This, according to Rick, is why art tends to come in movements – the source of creative expression is outside of us, operating on a grander scale, reflecting the heart and culture and emotions of a specific time, then channeled through many individual lenses.

It is the artist’s job then to stop, look around, and open themselves up to what the universe is trying to do and say today. The question now becomes not what the work of art will be, but who will be its vessel? 

. . .

Late creative icon Virgil Abloh once said

“You can’t surf without the wave. You have to study the wave, you have be in the water, you have to go look at it and know when it’s going to break. You have to know if there are other surfers who are going to take that exact same wave. Design in the modern sense is very much like that. And I surf every day”

THE WAVE

Different contexts. Different authors. Different applications. Yet all 3 of these excerpts have one thing in common – they require us to stop, look around, and open ourselves up to a creative will outside of ourselves, to study what already is instead of forcing something entirely new. And it’s only by tapping into this larger source of inspiration that we can truly do great and impactful things that meet people where they are.

To me, perhaps this is best conceptualized as God and what He’s trying to do or say about a specific group of people or period of time, and by extension, how I can best join in His plan. To Rick, it’s the creative opera of the universe and how an individual artist can contribute to the symphony. To Virgil (and now to this article’s title) it was the cultural wave or mood of an era and how he could reflect that mood in his designs.

Honestly, I can’t really put one definition to it (and not for want of trying). But in its many definitions, I’ve found a few common threads.

1. It’s bigger than you and me 

The wave is around us more than it is in us. It is something outside of ourselves to be felt, observed, studied, and joined. 

Humility in the face of a greater power like this isn’t always easy. It requires surrendering to something you can’t fully control. But with it, you’ll be able to be a part of something even greater than yourself. 

1. You can find it anywhere

I’ve often felt both peak spiritual closeness with God and peak creative inspiration while in nature. Writers like Malcolm Gladwell do most of their work against the ambient chatter of a coffee shop. It’s not unheard of for musicians to seclude themselves in their homes or a remote location while making their next album. 

Where and how you connect with the wave is up to you. What’s important is that you find a setting where you can – that’s right – stop, look around, and tap into the greater inspiration of the wave and let it nudge you in its direction.

1. It changes 

Up until now “the wave” has been this ambiguous, ill-defined force that you all have indulged me in trying to describe for 12 paragraphs. To bring you along with my thinking, I thought I’d share a recent example a friend shared with me that explains how I see “the wave”.

We were talking about Netflix’s new show BEEF and why it resonates with so many people in our generation. Without spoiling too much, the show deals with two ostensibly opposite characters who share this indescribable feeling of frustration and anger that they can’t seem to shake or pinpoint its origin. My friend was talking about how some older folks at her job didn’t understand the hype around the show. But her and I got it immediately – we saw ourselves in those characters. So many of us relate to this below-the-surface feeling of anger or sadness or frustration about the world without being able to pinpoint exactly why or how to resolve it.

That’s the wave.

Sometimes it feels really big like when we think about the state of our world and the impacts of politics and climate change and social division. Sometimes it’s small like when Uber Eats gets the order you’ve been looking forward to all day wrong and, for whatever reason, it feels like no good things are ever going to happen to you ever again (OK maybe that one’s just me). Regardless of how it takes form though, that feeling is there.

So in the case of BEEF, that’s tapping into God saying “my children are feeling angry and frustrated, and I want to address that. Will you help me do it through your gift as a writer, actor, director?”. To Rick, perhaps that’s an artist opening themselves to the heart of the universe and listening for that hidden anger and frustration and channeling it into their music. To Virgil, maybe that would have been the cultural angst and rebellion of our generation that he sought to reflect in a new season of clothing.

One creative heart, channeled through many individuals. That’s the wave.

This example is especially revealing because it shows how the wave changes. These are the feelings of today, not yesterday. Young adults have been feeling this for the past few years, but I don’t think that’s what they were feeling a decade ago. There’s a season for everything, and part of the beauty and fun of creative work is thinking through how we can change our work to reflect the natural change around us.

PUTTING THE “MODERN” IN MODERN MUSINGS

The name of this blog is Modern Musings. All my friends will tell you that I have the musings part down pretty well. It’s borderline annoying how much I think about things. 

The modern part is where I can see myself struggling. As I’ve thought about article topics, I often found myself gravitating towards interesting ideas but outdated ideas. Much like Manna from God, hold onto your ideas too long and they’ll no longer be useful. BEEF doesn’t work 5 years ago. As artists, we shouldn’t rush the creative process, but I do think there is something to be said for sharing an idea at the time of maximum impact. Like Rick Rubin said, either we act as the vessel or we make way for the idea to be transmitted through someone else.

So in a feverish attempt to put the “modern” in modern musings (and force myself to share more frequently ), my next few posts will dive into “the waves” I’ve observed today. The waves of society writ large. The waves of our romantic lives. The waves of our work lives. My hope is that as we identify these waves, we’ll be able to tap into the core creative will around us and produce work that really has an impact on people. Work that gives voice and form to emotions and ideas that are bigger than you or me.

It’s sink or swim time.

Here’s to becoming better swimmers.