Columns
Tuesday, 1 July 2003
Creativity
Quick. Name the most creative person you know. Don’t think. Did you name yourself?
Most of us believe that creativity is something outside of ourselves that we have to go and get. This is a very typical idea of creativity. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen imaginative, original women insisting that they aren’t creative. Maybe they emphatically deny their marvelous gifts because if they admitted they were creative, then they’d have a play, a painting or a hefty bank account to prove it. In our acquiring society, we glorify creativity as product, not process: Process is another way of stopping to savor the creativity roses while we are creating.
I recently made a gift for my friend in Carlsbad. I had visited him at his new apartment and I wanted to send a thank you. I know that Byron likes car shows, so I bought a car show events magazine for all the upcoming events in California for 2003. I also bought a postcard of an old car parked by Morro Rock. I was going to make a quick card and put everything in an envelope and include the socks that I borrowed. But as I was cutting the picture for the card out of a magazine, something silly took over. I stumbled across a ridiculous photo of a convertible and a woman’s cartoon head. I cut these out and formed a sentence with the words in the ad about finding the hot pink car of your dreams.
STOP!
This is what my mind screamed as I entered the creativity kingdom of good, silly fun: Ignoring my mind is the key to this kingdom.
One way I sidestep the mind is to sing loudly and badly. I had the Lilith Faire CD on the stereo. I hastily started hollering the wrong words to Tracy Bonham’s song “Meat Hook” and unhooked myself from critical self-judgment. Two blissful hours later the table was covered in paper scraps and glue. The socks ended up by writing a note to Byron thanking him for letting them go on vacation to Morro Bay.
It was one of the most delightful mornings I spent this year. Creating something just because. Yes I was concerned that he’d think I spent the morning in the loony bin. But I didn’t care because I had a grand time.
Divine inspiration flows from the inside out and its movement is healing. The hardest part of creativity is to accept that we have to release our creativity. In order for Byron to enjoy the package, I had to mail the package. When I didn’t hear back from him acknowledging the present, of course my inner critic started chattering away about how foolish I was to send it. Finally I called and left a message asking if he got the present and if he did then he was a bonehead for failing to acknowledge it. He immediately left a message that yes he loved it and had been traveling.
The next month, when I had fallen into the pit of self-loathing I called Byron and had him read me some of the goofy sayings I pasted together because I needed to laugh. He keeps the package in the living room so he can have something to laugh at everyday.
Creativity really is a gift that keeps on giving.
My creative expression will naturally differ from your creative expression. Let’s not compare. Everyday, we criticize our ideas (or surround ourselves with people who do it for us) before we ever get the chance to express them.
Creativity is abundant and flowing and demands to be practiced. Saturday, as we enjoy the gifts of our sister’s imaginations at the fair, let’s chant silently to ourselves: ‘I Too, Am A Creative Bean And I Am Living My Creative Life.’
May we always be juicy.