CREATIVITY = HANGING WITH POSSIBILITIES
One of the most fun books I have read recently is Melanie Rothschild’s THE ART OF MISTAKES: Unexpected Painting Techniques and the Practice of Creative Thinking.
In it she makes a most insightful comment: “Creativity is not just about art. Sometimes it has nothing at all to do with art. Creativity is about how we think, the possibilities we allow into our thinking and our ability to follow through with action. In just about anything we do, we can think creatively or not.”
And that IS the thing, you know. Even something as mundane as making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be a creative endeavor…or not.
One of the best aids to creativity, I find, is hanging with other people who think playing around with possibilities is fun and who actually work at trying to make something out of nothing as a matter of course. The more people you have around you who are busy living ordinary lives in extraordinary ways, the more likely it is that you will be inclined to do it too. There is nothing quite like being surrounded by other Makers.
The video that follows is a marvelous example of the possibilities that can become real when people play with possibilities. It’s about what happened when people who live in a slum built on a garbage heap decided to give their children music….
And here’s another poem….
WE GO
You ask.
I answer.
I do not know much…
almost nothing at all.
But, I walk the same road you tread.
I’ve gone down in flames
and struggled up again.
It continues…the story does not end with you or me.
Here I stand.
no longer whole,
bent in odd ways,
no longer shining quite so brightly.
It doesn’t matter, you know
IT. DOES. NOT. MATTER.
The game goes on –
the game of light and shadow.
And we are the ones who can choose
to find the balance
in the roiling chaos
that makes and remakes this World of Dust.
We are the favored children of the Universe,
and in our dream and our stories,
in our Making and un-Making,
it is we who dare to dance between Heaven and Earth.
We are the ones who challenge
and we the ones who go down in defeat.
It is we who rise up again…
and again…and again…
until we no longer can.
And somewhere in all of that,
some of us get to fly,
some of us touch the stars.
Shoots! We go….
By Netta Kanoho
picture credit: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich (with ketchup as jelly) by Elizabeth Lloyd via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]
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SOME OTHER POSTS TO EXPLORE
(Click on each of the post titles below and see where it takes you…)
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Thanks for your visit. I’d appreciate it if you’d drop a comment or note below.
14 thoughts on “CREATIVITY = HANGING WITH POSSIBILITIES”
Great poem!
Thanks for the visit and the comment, Sandra! Please come again….
True! Creativity is less about art, and more about getting in tune with your natural inclinations and the creative possibilities – this translates into business, our personal lives, the internet, absolutely anything we can think of benefits from (and really should come from a place of) creativity.
I’m also partial to creative cooking – ie: get the gist of a recipe and just pave your own way ha!
Hey guys:
Thanks for the visit! Come again!
Best,
Netta
Hi Netta, first up, I like your poem.
I agree with what you said in regards to how it is important what kind of people we hang out with most of the time. I certainly choose my friends carefully. I love when we have great conversations and can bounce ideas off each other. It is inspiring and can be challenging at the same time.
I never looked at it as a creative process, but it really is.
Thanks for your empowering article.
Best,
Anke
Thanks for your visit, Anke. Please come again….
You talked about creativity. You tried to explain it using examples but you perfected it when you brilliantly displayed it in a poem, with words and emotions.
You are right, creativity sometimes is fueled and defined by who we had around us. That is what matters most; those ordinary people doing ordinary things in extraordinary ways.
I so much love this. I enjoyed the poem.
I’ll come here more often for more of this.
Cheers
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts, sammynathaniels.
Please do come again….
I am a huge fan of creativity and just like hanging out with people that can use their brains to be creative. I watch Ted talks regularly on creativity and it has been really inspiring. Those that are creative are the ones that bring change to the world.
Without them, the world would not have grown to the way it currently is. Creativity does not have to be a skill that we are born with. It can actually be learned and improved upon only if we open our minds and allow ourselves to be more than we choose to be.
Thanks for the visit and for sharing your thoughts, Jay.
Please do come again….
I really love poems and exploring literature
and challenging the human mind beyond just things
like scientific discovery. Exploring the human mind and culture
is a gift and discovery in itself. Thank you for this article!
And you are absolutely right,
being creative does not mean that you have to be very artistic.
It is about brainstorming and coming with inspiration and ideas
that is the most important. Anyone can do this!
You just have to challenge yourself in a way you have never imagined before.
Thank you for this article again, I really enjoyed it!
Welcome back, Leon. Good job on the poem! Thanks!
Do come again.
Have you read The Art of Possibility by Zander and Zander? Reading through your post that book came to mind. Not sure why. Your poem is beautiful. You can fail over and over again but you need to be brave and rise up. Failure is an opportunity to learn and to succeed sooner. Great work!
Keith, thanks for mentioning THE ART OF POSSIBILITY. I haven’t gotten to it yet. (I just keep getting behinder and behinder. All these amazing peeps keep thinking on and producing more and more great stuff to think on. Cool!)
Thanks for the take on the poem. I do appreciate it.
Please do come again.