This post grew out of a talk I presented at Mom’s church here in San Antonio, Texas.
As I tried to come up with what I’d present in the talk I’d been invited to give, I was thinking about the question, “Where did the idea for this story come from?”
Which led to the more general question, “Where do ideas come from?”
My theory is that ideas come from a mix of three things: influences, curiosity, and inspiration.
Blame It All on My Roots… Influences
My wife, Jen, is a big Garth Brooks fan. She’s been a fan of his for decades. She saw him in concert on one of his original tours, and still talks about what an amazing entertainer he his.
And she was disappointed when he retired in 2002 to focus on his family, because she had wanted to see him in concert again.
So when I found out Garth had agreed to do a one-man show in Las Vegas… and that the show would be playing the weekend Jen and I would be there with our friend Gary… Gary and I hatched a plot to get tickets.
Unlike Jen, neither Gary nor I had been avid Garth fans. We liked some of his songs, sure.
But after that concert, we were converts.
The show consisted of an empty stage, Garth, and his guitar. Despite its lack of spectacle—or maybe because of it?—it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. For nearly two hours, Garth told the story of what made him Garth Brooks, with a mix of anecdotes, his own songs, and the songs of those who’d influenced him.
Haggard and Jones (+). James Taylor. Bob Seger. And many others.
He wove together, in stories and songs, how those who’d come before him had influenced the artist he’d become.
It was brilliant, and captivating. If you have the opportunity to see it (there are recordings available now), please do yourself the favor.
That experience showed me the power of influences to inspire one’s own work. And it made me think about all the works that influenced me growing up, the way that the music of Haggard and Jones and Taylor and Seger influenced the Garth Brooks sound.
It’s a chain we make… artist to artist to artist.
Memories of the Season
One of those influences for me, and a key one for Bearing Gifts in particular, was Romeo Muller. I’m sure the name isn’t familiar to you. Before I started this project, I didn’t know him, either.
But as I began researching the Christmas television specials that influenced Astor’s story, the ones I grew up watching each Christmas season—like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Little Drummer Boy, and Frosty the Snowman—I discovered that most of them were written by the same man: Romeo Muller.
Mr. Muller passed away in 1992, but his works live on, and his influence is very much a catalyst for this book. And that is why I dedicated Bearing Gifts to him.
Curiosity Opens the Way
The other catalyst for the book is another Christmas memory from my childhood.
Growing up, we always had our Nativity set on display during the holidays. Part of that display—the part that most fascinated me as a child—was the Three Wise Men on their camels, bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to Bethlehem. Mysterious and mystical figures, exotic and wise and powerful, they humbled themselves and made the long journey to Bethlehem to honor the Christ Child.
But as a child (and still as an adult) I wondered: how could they ride those camels and carry their gifts—in their arms—for the whole journey? That didn’t make any sense. They must have had something… or someone… carry the gifts for them…
Lightbulb. That flash of inspiration—dare I say, that epiphany—became the kernel of the story that would become Bearing Gifts.
But it was my childhood fascination with the Wise Men, and the curiosity about who they were and how they might have lived, that opened the channel for that inspiration to visit.
The Call to Create
And so the ideas for this book—and I believe all ideas, in their way—come from a combination of our influences, our curiosity, and the mystery of inspiration.
It’s by the connection of these individual catalysts that we are called to create our best work, our art. By connecting to the work of others that speaks to us. By connecting ideas through our curiosity. And by connecting to the God-given gift of inspiration.
As the works of the sculptor of the Wise Men figurines and the stories of Romeo Muller served as the catalysts for inspiration of Bearing Gifts, I hope that this book will serve as the catalyst for inspiration for other artists to create their own best work.
In a future post I’ll share more on the story of the book, and how it came to be. Connection is at the heart of this story, too: the collaboration with my friend and partner on this project, illustrator Polina Kotliar.