WELCOME October 1, 2001 Issue

The need to "get deep"

Bill Dawley

The famous blues guitarist/singer John Lee Hooker passed on recently in Los Altos, California. Writing about Hooker in The Boston Phoenix, writer Ted Drozdowski called Hooker's music a "spiritual tonic." Commenting on the musician's trademark outfit—white suit, matching fedora, and his always-present dark sunglasses, Drozdowski quoted Hooker as saying, "I get so deep when I sing that teardrops come into my eyes. I wear dark glasses so you won't see the teardrops."

Getting deep. It's what the "creative process" is about. And, in a way, it's what the Science of Christianity is about, too.

The author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote this about creativity: "Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them." A couple of lines later, she continued, "The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips" (p. 89).

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors