FROM THE MINISTERS

Rev. Kelly Asprooth-Jackson, Co-Senior Minister

The Challenge of Creativity in Mundane Times

In the late 70s, one of the odder episodes of the Cold War unfolded when a very large hot air balloon—the biggest ever to fly in Europe up to that point—crash-landed on the Western side of what was then the border between East and West Germany. Here’s how that came be: Peter Strelzyk and Guenter Wetzel lived in East Germany (a dictatorship with an infamously repressive secret police force), and felt they would rather live in the West. But between them and their preferred home stood the apparatus of a repressive state— and the vast fortified border it guarded zealously to keep its citizenry trapped in their own country.

So Peter and Guenter devised a plan: they would build a hot air balloon, and use it to sail over the border. Everything about the plan was illegal, of course, so they had to gather materials and do all their work in secret. The balloon would have to be very large in order to carry them and their families. The first material they tried wasn’t tightly woven enough to hold the air in, so they tried again. They found a new source of stronger cloth and built a flyable balloon… which crashed on their first attempt at a crossing. Finally, after driving all over the country to buy yet more fabric in units small enough for the authorities not to notice, the two men completed their second functional balloon.

This one was large enough to carry all eight of its prospective passengers, and it seemed up to the dangerous task ahead. But then the amateur balloon pilots managed to set the balloon itself on fire shortly after taking off. The folks dangling below it then had a choice: give up a second time and try to make a third balloon, or press on at the best possible speed and hope that they might make it into West German territory before their burning craft forced them to the ground. Desperate now, and sensing that the East German authorities were closing in, they chose the lat- ter course. The two families managed to make it across the border.

It’s a thrilling story of creativity and daring— enough so that it was actually made into a film with John Hurt and Beau Bridges. But I tell it to you now to highlight what came after. The Strelzyk and Wetzel families made new lives in West Germany (and after the Berlin Wall came down, they mostly moved back home to the former East). But these two families who had been through so much together—who had struggled and suffered and endured so much danger and adversity—had a falling out soon after their escape. They argued publicly over who had played the larger and more crucial role in their ingenious balloon construction, competing for public attention. Their great adventure had a sad epilogue.

It’s one of our great capacities as human beings that a crisis or a dramatic challenge can bring us together, and bring out some of the best in our generosity and creativity. But most of the work of living takes place between such times of intensity. It takes a different kind of creative effort to sustain goodwill, and open-heartedness, in the passing of daily life. In your own household, family, or work environment, perhaps you can see some example of this at work. Here in our community at FUS, we have shown many times our collective ability to creatively solve big problems and achieve great goals. But life in community is mostly the moments in-between crises, when the creative spirit most needed is the ability to imagine the perspective of someone we disagree with, or devise new ways to stay connected. As we reflect on the spiritual theme of Creativity this month, I invite you to keep in mind not only the ‘Eureka!’ moment, but also the inventive spirit that breathes life into the mundane quieter, but no less vital. ◊