Kindle Notes & Highlights
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September 6 - September 20, 2018
“But” is the favorite word of our sensible, inhibited selves. But . . . it will never work. But . . . it’s too expensive. But . . . I just don’t want to.
“Yes, but . . .” is almost as deflating as a flat-out “No.”
“Somebody lose the argument.”
“And” keeps things open.
“But” statements from members of the congregation: But vandalism is wrong. But we can’t condone this behavior. But my children were baptized in this church. It hurts to see it defaced in this way. All valid perspectives. And yet. And yet. Photos of the church’s response went viral,
not knowing where Yes-And will take us. In that sense, improv provides a different spin than the traditional “taking a leap of faith.”
“Faith is not jumping from point A to point B. Faith is jumping from point A.”3
most indispensable quality in a good improviser is the ability to listen and observe . . . to see what others are doing onstage; . . . to hear the emotion behind the words; . . . to discern the authentic response within one’s self to what’s happening.
Deep listening is a gift.
So eventually [in improv instruction] you get people to let go, and to really listen and be in the moment. But that can take some time and some work.”
relationship work. Therapists teach active listening to clients, in which one person repeats what’s been said by the other to make sure they heard and understood.
Onstage, a good improviser trusts that a little bit of awkward silence isn’t nearly as bad as making a hasty move that doesn’t honor what their partner has offered.
Silsence before speak
“What else could this be?”, we cleaned it out and transformed it into a worship space
What’s changing, according to the research, is our motivation to pay attention. When we’re motivated to focus,
Industrial Revolution had more focus than we do, but that they had a lot less pulling at them—fewer temptations and distractions.2
Brené Brown chronicles the many ways we try to crowd out negative emotions, to keep ourselves from experiencing tough feelings. We
The Christian language for this is kairos, a Greek term for “holy time” or “God’s time,”
But thanks to the interruption and Marsalis’s graceful way of embracing it, the ovation was tremendous. He had heard the obstacle with gracious ears and responded with his best Yes-And.1
hopeful orientation—turned always toward possibility.
Finding the Yes-And amid horrible circumstances and the death of Plan A is defiant and stubborn: We’re gonna make something redemptive out of this mess.
How could they possibly see things any other way than mine? And when a misinterpretation occurs, we’re faced with a choice: we can dig in our heels and fight to keep our original assumptions in play, or we can get curious about the new direction: set our agenda aside, go along for the ride, and see where we go together.
Why not loosen our grip just a little?
In improv, as in life, everyone should get to play. It’s how God made us—one for another. In Genesis 1, God has fashioned the universe, piece by piece, heavens and earth, sky and sea, and pronounced it all good. Quasars, good. Conifers, good. Manatees, good. In Genesis 2, technically a second creation story, we learn for the first time that something’s
Greek word perichoresis. It’s
sense of mutuality between the three persons of the Trinity.
no hier...
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Perichoresis implies a dynamism, a “dancing around” rather than a fixed, static reality. The
Robots may not always get the biggest laughs—though as the straight man or straight woman, they often do—but the scene would fly off into space without them.
robot is the provider of safety in the scene, and, perhaps, in relationships. Pirates, if left unchecked,
So far in these pages we’ve looked at Jesus as a master of improvisation. What about his friends and followers?
book The Age of Missing Information, author and activist Bill McKibben (no relation) undertook an unusual experiment: he asked a cable company for videotape of every program, on every channel they broadcast, for an entire 24-hour period. Armed with some 1700 hours of video, he retired to his home in the Adirondacks to watch it all. It took him a year. His reflection on that experience forms the backbone of his book.
We’re being told we’re the heaviest object around and that everything needs to orbit around our ideas of convenience and comfort.”
three different ways of observing and analyzing the circumstances of our lives.
critical mode,
focus on everything that’s wrong with ...
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scientific mode,
what matters is the objective truth of the situation.
improviser’s method,
it’s not the self that matters most, and it’s not about removing self and other.
it’s the other that looms large.
What gift is the other pers...
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“Protecting the freak” means that when someone steps out and takes a risk, we don’t look with eyes of judgment but respond with support, which
Coolness kills improv, but it kills a vibrant life too. Coolness is detached. Coolness
starts miming an action—playing putt-putt golf, for instance. Another person comes forward and asks, “What are you doing?,” and the first person names something completely different than their actions suggest. So instead of “I’m golfing,” they might say, “I’m baking a cake.”
second person accepts the offer and starts baking a cake, and the first person is done and can sit down.
people realize very quickly that if they don’t come forward, their friend whose dignity they care about will be stuck up there playing putt-putt golf for the rest of his life.
remember a workshop in which an older woman completed a doodle that was passed to her by a ten-year-old girl. I loved what they created and asked the woman if I could have it. Without
