{"id":19459,"date":"2023-03-16T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=19459"},"modified":"2026-02-09T08:17:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:17:50","slug":"nick-cave-and-the-jesus-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2023\/03\/16\/nick-cave-and-the-jesus-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Cave and the ‘Jesus Idea’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

During my commute to and from work on the bus the past few weeks, I\u2019ve been listening to snippets of \u201cFaith, Hope & Carnage,\u201d an audiobook of rich conversations between Nick Cave, the Australian singer-songwriter, and Irish journalist Se\u00e1n O’Hagan. They talk about the meaty heartaches and joys of what it means to be alive, touching on the pandemic, the recent death of Cave\u2019s 15-year-old son, the consuming ache of grief, the music industry, spiritual transformation, hope and how the creative process in enmeshed in all of this. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Faith<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

So much of what Cave says about grief, God, and creativity struck something deep and guttural inside me. Listening to this audiobook while on the bus, watching bare trees and sky and gray-brick buildings out the window, had me reflecting, in a particular, yearning way, on the creative process; of how layered and visceral and tangled it is in everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we can not talk about [grief] if we are talking about the creative process,\u201d Cave says in the audiobook. \u201cThe creative process is not part of one\u2019s life, but life itself and all that it throws at you. For me, it was like the creative process \u2014 if we want to call it that \u2014 found its real purpose [in grief].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been thinking of this in light of Lent, and how it\u2019s necessary, I think, to go through times of real heartache \u2014 even desert-like apathy \u2014 and almost-agonized waiting in order for something true and new to be born from our imaginations. In the book, Cave explains his creative process: He chooses a specific date as a starting point for a record, and all the lyric writing gets done \u201cfrom the ground up from the allotted date.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resurrection is the full depth of creativity, and we get tastes of it in the thrill and spark of human imagination.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWriting songs is a bloody business, especially at the beginning,\u201d he says. \u201cYou start from deprivation, complete lack. That\u2019s when you\u2019re confronted with yourself minus your ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing to embark on a creative project or pursuit is a deeply vulnerable experience. In choosing to begin, you are confronted with your blank sheet of a self. You start to question everything \u2014 if you are worthy or capable of such a task as this idea is demanding of you. Sometimes, in this state of being, I become consumed to the point of feeling guilty for any time spent not working on the project. I daydream a lot. It feels like a flurry of emotion and unsettledness and excitement and fear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe creative process can be so demeaning,\u201d Cave says in the book. \u201cIt\u2019s odd that even though I\u2019ve made many records and this always happens, it can still plunge me into a really distressing place where I\u2019m met with the most counterproductive thoughts. It affects everything. My capacity, relationship, all in a bad light. The perennial drama of songwriting. Then suddenly it changes, and the lights come on. Things start falling into place. The good ideas suddenly present themselves, rise up off the page, and begin to hold hands. Not all at once, necessarily, but rapidly. That\u2019s the thrilling part, the best part of songwriting. The drosses falling away to reveal the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cycle he talks about \u2014 the counter-productive thoughts and energy transformed when ideas start holding hands and revealing themselves \u2014 really resonated with me. A huge part of the creative process for me has become trust, having faith in that which moves me to create, the spirit churning in my gut. Nothing ever does come, until it does<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"street-trees-building-stop
Photo by Cassidy Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cave continues: \u201cI was reminded of that beautiful notion of William Blake\u2019s, of Jesus being the imagination. And also that startling image from Matthew 27: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who remain standing in front of the tomb. That made me think of what it\u2019s like to experience the birth of a creative idea. It\u2019s like you are waiting for the Christ to appear, to step from the tomb and reveal himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Paschal Mystery feels like its own meditation on the creative process: the letting go of the comfortable and the dying and grief and change and waiting in vigil and the rejoicing in new life, new creations. And how we must go through all of it to experience the fullness of what it means to live and create. The resurrection is the full depth of creativity, and we get tastes of it in the thrill and spark of human imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order for [the creative idea] to happen, you have to be patient,\u201d Cave says. \u201cYou must have faith. And often you must do the waiting alone. You have to have forbearance, a tolerance of the process itself, and also an alertness. It is easy to lose one\u2019s nerve, to run away like the apostles did, to go do something else. But we do that at our peril. That\u2019s when you risk losing the astonishing idea, the Jesus idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cith-street-building-lampost\"
Photo by Cassidy Klein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love the language that Cave puts around this, the \u201cwaiting in vigil for the Risen Christ,\u201d waiting in agitated hope for the threads and ideas to reveal their connections, for their newness and unexpectedness and simple joy to transform. We have to keep showing up for our creative work. It is then, in times when I\u2019ve been attentive and patient, that the words and ideas often come together in ways I could not have anticipated or conjured or expected until that exact moment when they say, here I am! Look!<\/em> And I go, how can this be?<\/em> And also, yes!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to always trust that the drosses will fall, that the words and ideas will continue to reveal themselves when the time is right. My God I love, help me to stay patient and trusting in this wrenching, living process. Please keep showing up, and help me know how to honor these ideas. Help me to not be afraid of truly new ideas, even if they unsettle me. Help me remain open to you, my God, awake and aware, standing in vigil, waiting for your shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cassidy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cassidy Klein<\/a> is an essayist, journalist and creative writer based in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Denver, Colorado, and attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California, to study journalism and philosophy. After college Cassidy moved to Washington, D.C. for a fellowship with Sojourners Magazine<\/a>, where she worked as an editorial assistant. Now in Chicago, she lives at The Fireplace<\/a>, a community of artists, activists and Catholic sisters. She is a freelance writer, editor and assistant with adults with intellectual disabilities at L\u2019Arche Chicago. Find more of her work at cassidyrklein.weebly.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During my commute to and from work on the bus the past few weeks, I\u2019ve been listening to snippets of \u201cFaith, Hope & Carnage,\u201d an audiobook of rich conversations between Nick Cave, the Australian singer-songwriter, and Irish journalist Se\u00e1n O’Hagan. They talk about the meaty heartaches and joys of what it means to be alive,...","protected":false},"author":149585910,"featured_media":19465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2178641],"tags":[698756281,698756283,698756280,401,698756279,16950,698756284,8329,698755380,698756275,4894885,93648,6085445,698756276,698756282],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-19459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-and-spirituality","tag-book-writing","tag-christ-at-the-tomb","tag-creative-process","tag-faith","tag-faith-hope-and-carnage","tag-grief","tag-human-transformation","tag-jesus","tag-lent","tag-nick-cave","tag-paschal-mystery","tag-resurrection","tag-risen-christ","tag-sean-ohagan","tag-song-writing","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/building-stop-sign-by-cassidy-klein.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"

Nick Cave and the ‘Jesus Idea’<\/a><\/blockquote>