{"id":804,"date":"2025-08-26T14:52:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=804"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:52:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:52:32","slug":"making-it-up-as-we-go-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rebelrebel.org.uk\/?p=804","title":{"rendered":"Making it Up as We Go Along"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reflection #109 (6th July 2025 at Essex Church \/ Kensington Unitarians)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel I should begin my reflection with a confession: I am the last person who should be talking to you about improvisation. The idea of being spontaneous, speaking off-the-cuff, or \u2013 God forbid! \u2013 doing a role-play has struck terror into my heart for most of my life. I like to have a script, or a plan, and (more-or-less) stick to it. I need time to think things through and at the very least sketch out contingency plans for all the most likely ways that a situation will unfold. I expect that will always be my preference, and I suspect I\u2019m not alone, though I\u2019m sure there are plenty of free-spirits amongst us this morning too, who tend to lean more the other way. So, if you\u2019re anything like me, you might need a bit of convincing about the idea of embracing improvisation. But, the thing is, whether you \u2013 or I \u2013 would choose to improvise for fun, or not \u2013 over the course of our lives the need to improvise occasionally is pretty much unavoidable. We\u2019re repeatedly going to find ourselves in situations where the unexpected happens and we need to respond creatively to whatever new reality we suddenly find ourselves in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Plans are, of course, still very much worth making. They can help us to live more intentionally, to act out of our principles and values, rather than following the crowd; plans can give us a sense of agency, rather than feeling we\u2019re drifting through our days, at the mercy of chance; and plans can keep our spirits up, by giving us things to look forward to, hopes on the horizon. At the same time we can (and we must) be clear-eyed and realistic about the possibility \u2013 perhaps the likelihood \u2013 that our grand plans won\u2019t entirely survive contact with reality. That refrain from the Jared Carter poem says it all: \u2018Each time you start, expect to lose your way.\u2019 The world we\u2019re living in seems ever more turbulent and unpredictable, doesn\u2019t it? So it helps if we can hold our plans lightly, with a certain openness-of-mind-and-heart, and be ready to respond and adapt to whatever unexpected curveball life might throw at us next. As per the quote from Stephen Colbert we heard earlier: \u2018Life is an improvisation. You have no idea what\u2019s going to happen next, and you are mostly just making things up as you go along.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you hear the word \u2018improvisation\u2019, I wonder what first comes to mind? Comedy, perhaps? Certainly I remember watching the Channel 4 improv panel show \u2018Whose Line is it Anyway?\u2019 as a teenager back in the nineties and going to see the Comedy Store Players a few times. Or there\u2019s theatre: some of you might be aware of the \u2018Austentatious\u2019 collective who have improvised a parody of Jane Austen novel live on stage in the West End every week for the last eight years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or indeed our own much-missed congregation member Veronica Needa who was a pioneer of Playback Theatre and improvised in response to audiences\u2019 life stories. Our former warden Jenny, as some of you may remember, was a keen practitioner of a form of dance known as contact improvisation. Or, on a rather different tack, improvisation in the kitchen \u2013 who remembers \u2018Ready Steady Cook\u2019 on TV? \u2013 good old Ainsley Harriot! \u2013 that show where celebrity chefs are presented with a carrier bag of random ingredients by contestants and have to rustle up something edible out of it in just 20 minutes (with the help of a reasonably well-stocked store-cupboard of basics). Or you might think of improvisation in music, especially jazz \u2013 I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ve got any jazz musicians lurking in the congregation \u2013 though I know we\u2019ve got some jazz enthusiasts here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that a lot of the commentary I found on improvisation came from musicians. The Catholic writer Edward Hays has said: \u2018Those who love life enjoy “playing it by ear,” engaging life without a printed score, simply flowing with its melody. By keeping our agendas flexible and minimizing our demands, life can be a melodic song. Whenever circumstances interrupt the normal rhythm of life, those who cultivate patience and inner freedom are able to improvise with a life situation like jazz musicians, making up music as they go along. And the emphasis in “playing it by ear” is on playfulness. Those who use that gift of the Holy Spirit make their way gracefully through life.\u2019 Similarly the singer Bobby McFerrin has said: \u2018Improvisation means coming to the situation without rigid expectations or preconceptions. The key to improvisation is motion \u2013 you keep going forward, fearful or not, living from moment to moment. That\u2019s how life is.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we might usually think about improvisation in these specific spheres \u2013 comedy, theatre, dance, music, cooking \u2013 but what unites all these different expressions? In her book, \u2018Improv Your Life \u2013 An Improviser\u2019s Guide to Embracing Whatever Life Throws at You\u2019, Pippa Evans writes this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Improvisation is a mystery to many people because it is so tied up in its identity as a comedy show, rather than a skill in and of itself. So I would like to use the following definition of improvisation: Improvisation is the art of using what is available to you in the moment. This definition works for me because the strongest improvisers are the ones who have unlimited access to everything they possess. \u2018What is available to you\u2019 means the people around you, the props on the table, and the treasure trove that is yourself. Your thoughts, your words, your responses, your presence in the moment. The best improvisers are not loud show-offs (not all of them, anyway) \u2013 they are curious and interested in the world around them. They want to expand their general knowledge, to be equipped for every scenario.\u2019 Words from Pippa Evans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would call this \u2018Improvisation as a Way of Life\u2019: \u2018the art of using what is available to you in the moment\u2019. Think back to that piece that Hannah read for us earlier on, by Gordon McKeeman, about \u2018Leftovers\u2019. He uses that metaphor \u2013 of improvising something more-or-less edible out of the random bits and pieces we happen to have left in our fridge \u2013 to get us thinking more deeply about the process of improvising a life that is liveable out of the random bits and pieces \u2013 material, psychological, or spiritual \u2013 we have accumulated over the course of our lives so far. Given who you are, the resources you have at your disposal, and the situation you find yourself in, however sub-optimal, the way of the improviser is to ask, in the moment: \u2018what can I make of it?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paradoxically, it actually takes a fair bit of preparation, in order to improvise skilfully and well. Preparation can increase \u2018what is available to you in the moment\u2019, enhance your metaphorical store-cupboard, by stocking you up with resources to draw on. But as Stephen Nachmanovitch succinctly put it: \u2018Improvising means coming prepared, but not being attached to the preparation.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spontaneous delivery of \u2018I Have a Dream\u2019 by Martin Luther King illustrates perfectly how \u2013 despite appearances \u2013 the very best improvisation doesn\u2019t just conjure brilliance out of thin air. It takes a huge amount of groundwork. Dr King had given many speeches before that day, none of which had seemed to work so well, but he had learned a lot through all that experience. And he was thoroughly steeped in so many crucial influences: the Bible, and Shakespeare, political pioneers and justice activists, all of which he had \u2018digested, absorbed, and integrated\u2019. Dr King \u2018used what was available to him in the moment\u2019: in his case a huge wealth of inner riches, which he drew on, riffed on, and remixed in real-time, in order to articulate his powerful vision. We can learn from his example when preparing ourselves to improvise in daily life. All the wisdom we are exposed to, that we can digest, absorb, and integrate, becomes part of our \u2018treasure trove\u2019. It shapes our way of seeing and responding to the world in each moment. Again, as Nachmanovitch puts it, \u2018trust that the product of your preparation is not your papers and plans, but yourself.\u2019 Many forms of improvisation \u2013 certainly in music, dance, theatre, and comedy \u2013 involve two or more people playing off each other \u2013 which requires some \u2018tuning in\u2019, sensitivity of perception, to allow responsive, constructive collaboration in the moment. This often involves some sort of framework or \u2018rules of engagement\u2019 to structure the interaction; it\u2019s rarely a complete free-for-all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musicians might structure their improvisation by basing it on certain scales. Dancers \u2013 I know this much from my own experience of ballroom dancing \u2013 social dancers will have a repertoire of basic steps that they can join together in different combinations in response to the music. And we practice our scales or moves so they come more easily to us and are \u2018available in the moment\u2019. Again, the same principles might come in useful when thinking about improvisation in daily life, as we\u2019re never truly living in isolation, and will face constraints and opportunities as a result. We\u2019re part of an interdependent web with every other being in the universe, so the dance-that-is-our-life will always involve other people\u2026. which inevitably complicates matters! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And perhaps the final thing to mention about improvisation is that it\u2019s guided by some sort of vision of what it is we might hope to create \u2013 whether it\u2019s an audience rolling with laughter, a beautiful and flowing movement across the dancefloor, a delicious curry \u2013 or maybe even a speech that will change hearts and minds and \u2018bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice\u2019 (perhaps the rest of us won\u2019t have quite the impact that Martin Luther King did but all of our creative acts, however humble, play their part in nudging the universe in one direction or another). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when it comes to Improvising as a Way of Life \u2013 well, what is it that we hope to create? What are the values and principles that guide us and shape our way of being in the world? What are the aspirations that we hold before us when we look at our life and ask \u2018what can I make of it?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a way, coming to church each week is a bit like practising our scales, or our steps, in preparation for the everyday improvisation that is our life. Here we remind ourselves, over and over, of our shared values and principles, internalising them, so that they become habits of mind and heart, so that they are \u2018available in the moment\u2019 \u2013 ready so that, when we\u2019re confronted by life\u2019s latest plot twist, we stand a better chance of spontaneously responding in a way that aligns with our highest values, and \u2018being our best selves\u2019 And each time we meet, I hope, we each tuck a little bit more wisdom into our store-cupboards, and build up our resources and our inner strength for whatever it is we might have to deal with next. Don\u2019t forget those words from Yehudi Menuhin: \u2018Improvisation is not the expression of accident but rather of the accumulated yearnings, dreams and wisdom of our very soul.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I hope to see you back here next week \u2013 same time, same place, eh? \u2013 let\u2019s keep on practising together as best we can. And, in so doing, let\u2019s support each other in responding ever more creatively to this precious life. May it be so, for the greater good of all. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection by Jane Blackall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n