My brother can be annoying sometimes. He’s three years younger than I am. He followed me from high school to college, from Arizona to Chicago. He now works with me at Community Christian Church, writing sketches and film scripts and directing actors for our weekend services. He lives four doors down from me on the same side of the street. We’re close. And, we’re close.
Seriously though – he can get annoying when it comes to creativity. The man never gives up on an idea. I’m sure all of us are familiar with the brainstorm room, and we all cringe when the umbrella of mercy gets shattered like a pane of glass and someone’s brutal attempt at a spark of an idea lands with a thud on the table. We’ve all done it, and most of us move on. Not my brother Elic. He is unstoppable. If he believes in an idea, he will hold onto it no matter how crazy it sounds.
Recently, we developed a series video for a Big Idea series entitled “Eat This Book.” It was to be an ethereal, mystical, image-driven short, with pages turning, dust blowing, prophets pondering… all pointing to the Big Idea of reading the Bible, and doing as the metaphor says, to “eat this book.” Well… Elic had a different idea, and pitched the concept of a parody of the Sonic commercials with the two comedic buddies rapping about their food. He pitched the idea in our Big Idea meeting, and you could hear the crickets chirping. No one wanted to say a word, either because they didn’t want to change the idea we already had agreed on, or because they didn’t want to tell Elic how goofy his idea was.
There is a lot to be said for throwing away bad ideas, being able to call them as such, and then pick up with a new idea. I think that habit is ultimately healthy, because it treats the idea as something apart from the person, which helps prevent hurt feelings when an idea doesn’t work. But sometimes, an idea just won’t let you let it go. And those are the times that we as artists need to pay attention.
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