"What books, art, music, people, philosophies and other influences do you recommend for inspiration?"
A question and an answer on a Friday.
After a few weeks away from answering questions, I’ve been getting back to it. The questions come from paid subscribers, whose support allows me to treat writing like a job. Casse asked this new one in the chat last night. Sidenote: If you’re on the fence about paying, beyond access to all of the writing, the chat is a solid reason to go for it—a growing group of kind folks, a sweet continued conversation.
Casse!
Great question and thanks for asking. Based on how you worded it, I’m going to start with a disclaimer. You asked what I recommend for inspiration. My disclaimer: One of the cool things about inspiration is that it isn’t universal. What inspires me may not inspire you and vice-versa. I’m happy to share my list but I think it’s way more interesting and important to come up with your own, to find what inspires you.
I’m going to answer in the order you asked…
Books
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller was the book that made me want to write. It was honest and poetic and funny and deep. It was a book about faith and yet it was real in a way that was refreshing.
I loved Bono’s book Surrender. I started out reading and then switched to the audio version and really loved it. Bono is in a league of his own for me, in terms of personal heroes. This has been true for a long time now and the book did not disappoint. I loved Brené Brown’s two-part interview with him, from the Austin stop on the book tour. I really enjoyed Bono’s Smartless episode as well.
Other favorites: East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Art
For art, I’m gonna go with poetry. My three favorite spoken-word poets are Anis Mojgani, Levi the Poet, and Tonya Ingram. I’ve been able to count all three as friends. Tonya passed away last year. I’m thankful for the memories of time spent together and watching her perform. I’m glad for the books and videos she left behind, so that people can continue to discover Tonya’s beautiful work, which of course is an extension of the incredible person she was.
Music
I mentioned that I’m answering these in the order they were listed in the question. Otherwise, when it comes to inspiration, music would be at the top of the list. My big three are U2, Counting Crows, and Switchfoot. As it relates to feeling inspired, I would say that honesty and urgency are common threads throughout the music that moves me. Obviously there is melody and harmony, the way a song sounds, but I definitely connect with lyrics that are willing to be honest about the human experience—beauty and pain, wonder and loss, and everything in between.
Of the three bands I mentioned, I've been a fan of each one for basically my whole adult life. The Switchfoot guys have become dear friends, and that has added another layer of meaning to the music. So many of my favorite nights have involved seeing the band perform. I’ve been able to invite my family. And then I just cherish so many memories of spending time with the guys, for more than two decades now. At this point it’s hard to imagine my life without Switchfoot.
Other favorites: Noah Gundersen, Thrice, Manchester Orchestra, Gang of Youths, Jimmy Eat World, Jeff Buckley, Phoebe Bridgers, The 1975, Florence + The Machine, Ethel Cain, Bon Iver
People
I touched on Bono earlier. Barrack Obama inspires me with his leadership, communication, perspective, and humility. Rob Bell and Propaganda both inspire me with their creativity and intellect. I’m a fan of Rob’s unique career path and the events he comes up with. Glennon Doyle inspires me with her willingness to be vulnerable and vocal, and to show up in the hard moments. Jen Hatmaker has become a great friend and a great encouragement. She is brilliant and hilarious. Her guy Tyler Merritt is pretty great as well. I’m inspired by the way Tyler brings theater and performance into his activism and communication. Jeremy Courtney and his wife Jessica are the ones who inspired me to care about people displaced by violence and poverty. I was moved by their work in Iraq—not only the work but their lives in Iraq. That led to a friendship and the friendship led to me getting to visit them, which is a trip I’ll never forget.
Bob Hurley is another person who has inspired me. Bob started the brand Hurley and he hired me to be their Florida sales rep when I was 22 years old. That changed my life and I’ve alway been inspired by Bob’s legendary kindness, his accessibility and generosity and humility.
There are plenty of others with names lesser known. My parents, my sisters, my nephews, my friends. My neighbor Alice, who is 101 years old and walks to the end of our street every single day to watch the sunset. Alice’s daughter Xochitl, who shows up every evening to be by her mother’s side.
I can’t leave out the folks who join me for small-group conversations, especially those I see on Sundays. I’m inspired by their vulnerability, their empathy and compassion, and all the laughter too. While in a way these groups are work for me, I’ve been inspired by countless moments of connection. My life is better because of the conversations and relationships.
Philosophies
I grew up a Christian and while I don’t like what Evangelical Christianity has become in recent years, especially in America, I still dig the idea of a loving God. I don’t know that I consider myself a Christian today, because the word has been hijacked and misrepresented, but how I grew up certainly shaped me, and some of it has stayed with me. I come back to the emphasis on radical love, especially loving those in the margins of society. I come back to forgiveness and grace and the idea that I’m designed for relationship. I’ve become a progressive person and so as it relates to faith, I’m inspired by those who have been willing to change over time, and those who have given language not only to the process but to how they see the world at this point.
Other Influences
It certainly makes sense that we are influenced by the people and places and activities we spend most of our time around. Which means we’ll have to be intentional when it comes to finding inspiration. We’ll have to leave our bubbles and our comfort zones. We will have to take chances and take risks. Of course we hope to be surprised. And then maybe a big part of being inspired is simply being open to life, paying attention to what’s happening around us as we go about our day, even when at first glance it seems ordinary or mundane. So often the miracles—the epiphanies and lessons and changes in perspective—they arrive in subtle moments and unexpected places.
Thanks again for your question Casse. I would love to hear from you, along with anyone else who wants to share. Where do you find inspiration?
My friend Noah Gundersen’s new song “Swim” was on repeat while I worked on this. Jon Bellion’s cover of “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot is another good one out today.
Join me next Wednesday, July 26 for “I Need to Find My Confidence.” I love leading these small-group conversations. While the topic for the next one is confidence, connection tends to steal the show.
when i think of inspiration, i think of poetry and music. julien baker, noah, medium build, andrea gibson, buddy wakefield, mary oliver, ee cummings. people who know the pain of the world and still fight to believe in its goodness. the goodness of each other. thanks for this post and for starting the conversation
So much common ground... I found my daughter curled up on our sofa this week reading my dog-eared copy of “Blue Like Jazz” - the one with the yellowed pages and split spine...I wonder what she’ll make of it? She’s just finished her first year at the University of Edinburgh studying theology and we have the best conversations these days...
One of my closest friend’s wives used to work for the UK publishing house that distributed a book by some, then largely unheard of over this side of the pond, author who released a book back in 2005 called “Velvet Elvis”. That book had a massive impact on me and, as a new Dad at the time, I loved the idea of a belief system being like the springs of a trampoline rather than handing down some inherited version of faith made of bricks that could crumble if certain building blocks were removed through persuasive discourse in later life. I wondered how to gift that, how to impart that, how to live that... I don’t particularly follow the cult of Christian celebrity and all the cancel culture wars. I am, however, grateful for Rob Bell’s voice in amidst a broad range of thinkers, creatives, communicators and idea generators.
Bono’s “Surrender” was a bit of a homecoming for me in many ways last year. The urgency of the early U2 records I bought from age 11 onwards has never left me. Bono shaped my thinking in adolescence and ever since. He seemed unashamed of his faith, but it seemed more living and active and real than a lot of other expressions I saw in those formative teenage years (and regularly since then too). Reading and listening to him in his memoir rekindled something of that too - almost like a version of truth I could chime with and want to engage fully with. It can be so easy to want to distance myself from some versions of what people perceive by the word “Christian”. (Brian McClaren’s “Should I Stay Christian?” was a helpful read about a lot of that last year as was “Woven” by Joel McKerrow in recent years). “Surrender” is a theme I hadn’t really noticed woven so fully through U2’s catalogue and it is a word I came to really ponder in many areas of my own life.
Nick Cave’s “Faith, Hope, Carnage” was a stand-out read too. Such brutal honesty, vulnerability and fresh ideas and expression.
B. 🏴