Some old journal entries about creativity
A creativity class I took in 1998 required us to keep a running journal through the class. I stumbled upon some of my journal entries the other day:
January 12th, 10:00pmWell, since we’re supposed to be stretching ourselves in this class and trying new things, I’ve decided to try a different approach to my writing. Usually I’m a very careful ( Read more... )
January 12th, 10:00pmWell, since we’re supposed to be stretching ourselves in this class and trying new things, I’ve decided to try a different approach to my writing. Usually I’m a very careful ( Read more... )
First, however, inquiring minds got to know…just what *was* your creative project for that semester? And did the “Eye of Orion” ever get written? ;)
I love the Action Theater entry of the 27th and imagining the evil grin spreading over the face of that “obnoxious child in the dumpster” as she realized she could ignore societal constraints and let it all hang out! :D But, like you said, it does raise questions about the restraint (and level of it) that we choose to exercise when there are no constraints, because there are always costs associated with our actions, and most of us are going to ask ourselves are we really ready or willing to hurt/maim/kill/destroy other living beings or things in our quest to explore our limits/boundaries?
“I think one of the biggest handicaps to creativity is this notion that there are creative people and people who are not creative. Bullshit. Every human being has the potential to be creative, but by separating ourselves into us vs them, when we voluntarily place ourselves in the “not creative” category, it becomes self fullfilling.”
^AMEN AMEN AMEN. Same about the fear of criticism, ridicule, etc.
“The reason for this, he said, was because they would not see the same colors; they would not see the same flowers; they would not see the same thing.”
^True. We all travel such different paths and accumulate such different experiences and “baggage” along the way. Even twins, although super-similar, don’t occupy the same exact space through life and that introduces diversity/singularity.
“In a most basic sense, every thought we have is an act of creation.”
^I agree with you that all thoughts/actions is an act of creation and therefore “creative” to varying degrees, even if there are factions that want to limit the definition to the visual, auditory, and written arts to a thin sliver of outcomes and exclude the majority of the human experience, your professor and certain authors that you read during that class amongst them. Insular intellectual snobbishness meant to keep undesirables out. I mean, honestly, there really is nothing new under the sun, only ways to rebrand or repackage the known for the next generation. (Who’s not to say the light bulb isn’t the latest repackage/rebrand of the fire pit or the computer of the abacus?) With world-wide communication instantaneous and connecting hundreds of millions - one could say it’s all the more obvious that many of us arrive at the same creative achievements. (‘Course that alone can cause writers/artists’ block because who wants to create something if it’s already been done before? My hope is that since we’ve all traveled a unique path my point of view may put a slightly different spin on my creation that somebody out there, or a couple somebodies, may appreciate.)
I think I’m with your Dad a bit in leaning toward the scientific explanation as we know so little about the workings of the body, let alone the brain and its amazing chemistry, but then the other part of me knows beyond that there’s that thing we call a mind that can encompass the soul and the ability to name all of this and make order out of it. Perhaps creativity is just simply the process of the human body making order out of the chaotic mix of electrical impulses steeped in chemicals? (But why then, limit creativity just to humans?)
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