Eulogy for a fellow creative
Today’s first thing I did was remember the gift of life, creativity’s ultimate defining presence. I attended Naveen Siromani’s “Celebration of Life,” streamed online via YouTube at 6 am EDT. I wouldn’t claim to know Naveen extremely well, but Naveen’s lasting impression on me was his enduring nature and the gift of creativity that he carried and shared so generously.
Naveen was an “everyday creative,” not general, but his creativity was real and present each day and every moment of his life. What is true for Naveen may be true for the rest of us as we remember and celebrate NS.For Naveen, fun wasn’t frivolous. He enjoyed life, as testified by many of his peers and family. However, fun for Naveen was the main agenda for the day. It wasn’t merely a byproduct of or dependent upon anything else, i.e., if something “good” or “exciting” were to happen, then…. Rather, fun was something to be intentionally sought after and pursued. I imagine that Naveen’s fun wasn’t an isolated phenomenon. Still, the spontaneous and contagious fun that Naveen espoused resulted from NS being fully and actively present in every situation, especially with the people in his everyday world.
Far from a random occurrence, Naveen’s fun was tethered in fearlessness, the source and inspiration for everything he did and deeply cared for in life. It wasn’t being bold for the sake of bravery but courage anchored in a vision for Justice. If I remember correctly, Naveen compromised his role at a leading global news magazine when he wrote and posted on social media against a prevailing mindset among certain people and exposed a corrupt system. Naveen’s fearlessness caused him to take a stand for what he believed in. I imagine you could count on Naveen to empathize, putting himself in someone else’s shoes. More than that, Naveen was compassionate, ready, and willing to stand for something or someone and speak out for Justice despite the odds and fear of pushback.
It seems that for Naveen, it wasn’t justice for the sake of justice but justice that was rooted in love. Naveen loved his pet dogs. Unsurprisingly, the pure and undiluted love of pets, children, and others served as a natural magnet for Naveen’s sense of justice and love. The nature of such persistent and unfathomable love revealed itself in Naveen’s free spirit.
Naveen is free now, we might say, but there may be a lesson here: what if freedom after or beyond death is available only to those who live freely in this life here and now? Naveen was seldom held back by anything or anyone, perhaps to a fault, as some might feel, and at times perhaps to his detriment. But freedom cannot be contained; it refuses to be tethered; it uproots the pole of compromise in pursuit of compassion and justice and regularly gets lost; it is the “art of losing” oneself for the sake of others. In the penultimate reality of worldly death (for there is life after that in the worldview of Naveen), Naveen was fun, fearless, and free. Joy, Faith, and Love greet Naveen in the ultimate reality of life beyond death.
The evidence of creativity in anything is life. In what sense do we, through our creative designs, bring Life into the world, whether through product design, curating processes, or something else? Such is our hope–all of us “Handpicked”– in this world and for the one to come: whole-heartedly sharing in the Life of the Great Creator. The Scripture reminds us that,
There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger
and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way?
Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep me from stupid sins,
from thinking I can take over your work;
Then I can start this day sun-washed,
scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in my mouth;
these are what I chew on and pray.
Accept them when I place them
on the morning altar,
O God, my Altar-Rock,
God, Priest-of-My-Altar.
Psalm 19:17, The Message— — With love, a fellow creative, June 28, 2023.
