The Invitation of Interruption
I once did a course in ‘Improv’ comedy. It was terrifying. Although I love performing, stand-up, messing around on stage, and making-things-up on the spot, I was very much out of my comfort zone throughout the course. My attendance was terrible despite paying the fees. Improv is the art of surrender, humility, and going with the flow. And I am a closet-control-freak!
‘Improv’ is primarily about saying ‘Yes’ to whatever comes your way. It doesn’t work if you contradict, re-direct, and fight the flow of the drama unfolding before you, however antithetical it is to your precious visions, ideas, and plans. Trust me, I tried. There were times when it felt like I was trying to win the games we were playing, rather than being in the moment of what was happening – listening, responding, and playing freely like some of the others who were just brilliant at it. Improv that doesn’t invite the inevitable interruptions with an emphatic ‘yes’ is awkward, embarrassing, unfunny, and unfun. I think I need to go back and do the course again. I feel now that I missed out on a lot of important learning.
It would seem that one of the main things I am being tasked with at the moment is my ability to surrender control. I feel like the universe is whispering to me that at the heart of the art of living is the ability to invite, interpret, and integrate whatever comes up. It’s about letting go. My plans are not always that great! There can be an arrogance and impoverishment to shutting the door on interruption.
Life happens. Shit happens. Magic happens. We are not in control. Perhaps a little interference on our radio stations is an invitation to explore new frequencies, airwaves, and sounds. Interruptions might be divine invitations to retreat, rest, re-invent, repent, re-route, re-imagine, restore, redeem, and relook. Perhaps our interruptions are invitations to give up on the never ending to-do-list, bucket-list, and taskmaster treadmills that lead us to where exactly! Maybe there is magic to the mayhem of interruption – disruptive opportunities for joy, abandonment, originality, creativity, and surprise.
Of course, there is a time for carefully crafted scripts, pauses, and performances. There is a time for considered boundaries and curation. But I think we’re in trouble if that’s how we always live – because life is much weirder, wilder, and far more wonderful. We need to improvise. We need to say ‘Yes And’, which summarises the philosophy of Improv: accept the invitation of our fellow players and build on it.
Denial is the opposite of Yes And
Denial says ‘No thank you’
It kills comedy
It kills life
And it kills our playful potential to turn disruptions, difficulties, and deviations into something comical, beautiful, and meaningful.
I pray we invite in the interruptions of our life with an imaginative spirit of improvisation – declaring to the forces beyond our control - with humility, surrender, and power - a daring, devil-may-care, and delightfully defiant:
‘Yes And’
Amen