Like so many others, I have been reeling from the death of an icon. David Bowie has been a touchstone throughout my life, leading me to explore new music, visual arts, literature and broader ideas about the world. Bowie also taught me some important lessons about learning.
1-Stay Curious
Bowie has always managed to be tapped into the zeitgeist – which took hard work. Searching out new music, reading widely and remaining open to challenge seems to have been a discipline that sustained his creativity. There is evidence of this in all the anecdotes emerging after Bowie’s death – but it is also evident in his work.
Building time and tools to feed curiosity is fuel to creativity and quality.
2-Take Risks
Not everyone loved Tin Machine, but I remember being amazed that he’d stepped into a new creative process, as part of a band. I did not like every track (Working Class Hero was,… well, not great) – but it was exciting to hear Reeves Gabrels guitar build soundscapes and add new vocal challenges to Bowie’s. Of course, there were failures – like Never Let Me Down – which seemed to miss every beat – but Bowie used that to feed further risks – and led directly to Tin Machine. Since his death, there is a focus on Bowie’s two most recent albums and raving about their ingenuity and jazz influences. However, this was there in previous albums like Outside, Heathen and Reality, there are lots of tracks which take bigger risks – with the listener – but also with the creative concepts being used. Bowie was always asking us to join him and take a risk with his art.
Doing the unexpected and hard to understand is a necessary challenge to the status quo, and it is easier to move without the inertia of predictability.
3-Collaboration done right creates lifelong friendships
David Bowie maintained friendships that lasted his whole life, mostly coming from his creative work. Even bandmates from before he was famous received Christmas cards right up to his final months- and relationships with fellow creatives like Brian Eno were sustained and fed, even when there was no active project – as we heard from Eno himself. Bowie had an incredible work ethic, but managed to be generous and supportive – and, it seems, created a network of friends who could help him keep secrets, like new albums and terminal illness – that perhaps no one else could have done.
Work hard and be kind.
4- Above the clouds, the sun is always shining
Sometimes we all have to do things we don’t like. I am sure that David Bowie lived quite differently from most of us, very protected from the injustices and vagaries of economic hardship and with more options than most of is. So, perhaps it is easy to laugh when you are up ‘there’ already, above the clouds that often blanket our realities. However, as anyone who really listened to his music, notably his most recent output – he was weirdly in touch with ‘normal’ life – and able to see his own place as a star from the other side of the mirror.
‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’ managed to do this, I think through Bowie’s sense of humour. It is a disturbing, but funny reflection on fame and the mundane.
Laugh at yourself, to learn about both how people see you, but also how you can grow.
5- It’s ok to cry when facing the unknown
I cried for an hour after hearing that David Bowie had died. I had to cycle to work and the tears forced me to stop on the side of the road twice. A friend contacted me to ask if I was alright, knowing that I would be hit hard, and that totally destroyed the floodgates and I blubbed outside the train station. It has taken a week for me to put this into perspective, and though Bowie’s music has helped me through it – in lots of ways BlackStar is a lesson on how to deal with the darkness before you – rather than loss of what was – and what a beautiful black lesson it is.
Stepping into the unknown, alone, is scary; but fear and darkness can be beautiful.
In my own little way, I plan to honour David Bowie this year by taking these lessons to heart, and to share them.
So, join me, and tell me how you plan to #BEMOREBOWIE in 2016
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