Krista Tippett, is the Peabody Award-winning journalist, host of the podcast, On Being, and author of Becoming Wise — An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living. Tippett will be at UCSB Campbell Hall on April 20 at 7:30 p.m, in conversation with Pico Iyer. I caught up with her during a break on her book tour.
I love the subtitle of your new book. What compelled you to write this book at this time and to think of living as an art form? I started working on it a few years ago. I was responding to a question people often asked me, which is, you’ve interviewed all these wise and graceful people, what’s the link between them? I’m also fascinated by Einstein’s remark that we need more spiritual geniuses. We’re not taught to think of living as an art, though that idea is a theme at the heart of many of our spiritual traditions. The language used in our traditions is beautiful and inspiring, but I am also interested in practical tools for the artistry of living. Robustly and joyfully tending to one’s questions and answers is a common attribute of people that I consider wise.
During a recent interview you said that “the hallmark of our age is uncertainty.” Is part of becoming a wise person learning to be comfortable with ambiguity? Absolutely. We emerged, those of us born in the 20th century in America, with a particular sense of certainty, namely that things would always get better, that our lives and the lives of our kids would improve. The idea that things always go up and never come down defies the laws of physics, but we have bought into it in some ways. Life doesn’t become more certain. We are in a constant process of dealing with vast open questions, and redefining our understanding of concepts like gender and marriage. Acknowledging uncertainty brings us back to reality. The only certainty is that the next thing that happens will surprise you.