Celebrating Creativity
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Celebrating Creativity
“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not’?”
This week, I needed to search for something uplifting. Perhaps as some sort of necessary countermeasure after a few weeks of utter chaos. It seems like most of us have been experiencing higher levels of anxiety and fear than normal.
In times like these, I find solace in art (for me, particularly movies and music). It’s no surprise, therefore, that this week I entered the realm of creativity. That is truly what the world needs more of these days.
We are certainly stuck. Stuck politically between two narratives that are getting louder and more hopelessly irrelevant by the day. We are governed by people who built their success with tools, systems, and rewards for a world we left behind long ago. And, in some very hopelessly romantic way, too many of us expect THEM to fix what THEY created. At first glance, that conclusion may appear somewhat logical, but it is not realistic. Let’s examine that, again.
By that logic:
Cars were invented by horse buggy owners (Not..Ford did that!)
Electric cars were scaled by car companies (Not....Tesla did that!)
Music streaming was introduced by classic recording companies (Not..Spotify did that!)
Movie streaming was created by major movie studios (Not...Netflix did that!)
Mass home retail delivery was adopted by retailing companies (Not..Amazon did that!)
New ways of sharing rides and homes were innovated by rental cars or hotel companies (Not...Uber and AirBnB did that!)
The list of examples is very long. (These were just off the cuff!) And please don't take them literally or specifically, but rather, more generally. It's true in nearly all forms of innovation that in order to see the world anew, you have to liberate yourself from the prison of your own habits and perspectives. And rarely does the spark of creativity happen inside the same person (or system) who is enjoying the fruits of what that system is providing. Disrupting the status quo is uncomfortable and risky, after all. If you really want to change your home, you have to first throw out the old furniture.
This is, perhaps, why I am so drawn to entrepreneurs. They create things. They change things. And they rarely ask for help. They put their own savings, their own time, and their own creativity to reimagine something new.
Everyone is creative. We are born creative. Somehow as we grow up, we lose it. We reward stability, predictability, profitability, and power over pure creativity. But all of us know creativity when we experience it.
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
Creativity is a state of mind. And in that state, wonderful things often happen. If I had a dream, I would pour some creativity elixir on our world leaders. It would reduce their need for control and increase their desire to create; to solve and to find new paths where no one has walked before. That is exactly what we need right now. We need more exploration and less exhortation. We need more imagination and less intimidation. We need more cooperation and less condemnation.
“Imagine what you will learn when you’ll learn to imagine.”
This has, of course, implications for how we educate our children. With the explosive growth in technology, we must rethink and redesign both objectives and strategies for how and what we teach our children. Creativity has, more or less, effectively been educated "out' of most of us in favor of more "rational" subjects. I mean how many of us were told music, art, or drama wasn’t really for us?
Creativity also enters the current discussion around working from home, as well. I am a firm believer that creativity is radically improved together with other humans. Not always. And not for all kinds of creativity. But for most. Creativity is ultimately about making new connections based on new perspectives. And they are hard to come by all by yourself.
Creativity is the ultimate manifestation of our humanity. It is that inner itch of what our souls are crying out to do. To explore. To invent. To improve. To evolve. Sometimes, that lust is so hidden and depressed by layers of toxic insecurity, performance anxiety, and various doses of FOMO that we can't even recognize it. But it's there.
Luckily, we have plenty of avenues to connect (or reconnect) with that side of ourselves. We connect with it while lost in our favorite music or deeply entranced by a play, a movie, or a piece of art. We also connect with it in nature—on a mountain, on a beach, in the forest—and with the deep awakening that often happens when we are embraced by our majestic natural environment.
In my quest to get inspired, I scanned through old and new pieces of creativity masterpieces. If you crave inspiration, I highly recommend them.
Sir Ken Robinson's first TED talk on whether schools kill creativity. The case for creativity simply can't be made any better. It's sensational. I must have watched it 25 times and just rewatching it brought me to tears and laughter. I miss you, Sir Ken!
Elizabeth Gilbert's incredible first TED talk on the creative process and our more than complicated relationship with creativity and how we rewire how we think about our elusive creative genius
Of course, Apple's "Here's to the Crazy Ones" aired in 1997 as a celebration of the people who are crazy (creative) enough to think that they can change the world, simply because those are the people that do.
Rick Rubin's new book on Creativity and Krista Tippet's newly released podcast with Rick. I loved that conversation.
Creativity is what I feel we all need more of right now. Desperately. Creative people are not rigidly locked into one way of being. They always look for possibilities. And the world is filled with enormous opportunities, and we do need more of those crazy ones that can take us there.
And I will end with a somewhat unexpected example of the combination of creativity AND technology. I asked ChatGPT for a poem that rhymes and that celebrates creativity. As I have mentioned before, AI is incredible and offers so much opportunity for our world AND is also scary and at the same time poses risks we need to address. However, for today, let’s just lose ourselves in the incredible power of what machines can do to spark our own creativity.
Here is what was given to me (and us) in a few seconds. Well, if that isn't an example of human vision, ingenuity, and creativity, I don't know what is—enjoy!
Have a great creative week!
“In realms of endless possibility,
Where dreams take flight and visions roam free,
Dwells the essence of creativity,
The force that shapes our human tapestry.
A spark ignited in the depths of thought,
Inventive minds with boundless energy,
Bringing forth ideas that can’t be bought,
Oh, creativity, our symphony.
In strokes of paint and wordsmith’s glowing verse,
In melodies that soar and sculptures grand,
The beauty of creation we immerse,
A testament to what our hands command.
From humble origins to realms of art,
The muses guide us, touching every heart.
Through challenges and strife we oft contend,
Yet human ingenuity prevails,
Innovation’s torch, we shall not rend,
For boundless creativity, it hails.
As stars that shimmer in the midnight skies,
Our dreams illuminate the path ahead,
With every step, new horizons arise,
A testament to what our minds have bred.
Embrace the gift, this wondrous alchemy,
The fusion of our hearts and minds, entwined,
For in this dance of endless novelty,
The value of our spirit is defined.
In creativity, our souls take flight,
A beacon, guiding us through darkest night.”
