Creative, who, me?

My perception of myself as a creative person?

Gleebelwhatzits...shazam, and droublesnotters (translation later...)

Well...I suppose I am as creative as the next guy...or maybe more so in particular areas, but I suppose its all a matter of sematics, and I'm always up for some antics...

You see, I've tried perceiving myself as a creative person, but I don't know exactly where to start. For example, I tried to put two mirrors really close together once when I was a kid and get in between them--you know, to get that "infinite" number of reflections thing going, but I could never get more than a few dozen or so images of myself and I could never figure out which one was my "creative" side. If you know of an answer to this...let me know.

I also tried once to find the "Lady in the Lake" like King Arthur's legends, hoping she could give me the holy grail of creativity...but somehow it always seemed somewhat narcissistic to pursue my own reflections in a lake, especially a dry one... Besides, the water always seems to be moving the wrong way around (that's counter clockwise in the northern egoshere or perhaps counter-intuitively for the rest of us.)and waterfalls just complicate the matter entirely. However, they do offer some interesting insights when you stare at them for extremely long periods of time. (I recommend not to exceed a couple of hours here, and definitely not more than 15 minutes or so if you plan to drive right afterward...).

So, my perception of myself as a creative person, huh. Well, I would say it is fairly easy for me to put two and two together and come up with twenty-two, and I tend to gravitate towards creative people myself for what that's worth. (does creativty rub off? or maybe it just "buffs out" like car wax...) I also like being a peripheral visionary, where I can see into the future, but only way off to the side. (Got that from Stephen Wright.--I think he has a cure for it now, though.)

So, I see myself in the guise of a graduate student, doing a perpetually deeper study of all things people find interesting, only they never seem to stop finding more things interesting...so my research goes on...and on...and on...so, is this creative? Now, if I could clone myself, then perhaps the two of us could actually read all of the articles published in this area and get our collective dissertation of interesting creative people completed in record time. Connecting dots and spots, and plots, and well, lots...of stuff together in unique ways, is well, something that I find passes my time in life with some type of flow. So, yeah, I guess I am creative.

For my next trick...

Is creativity inherent or developed?

I know this one, it goes something like:

Hmmm...nature or nurture? The answer is obvious, isn't it? Determinism or free-will? No, that's not quite right. I think Forrest Gump said it best: He didn't know if we all had a destiny (like a box of chocolates) or if we were all just floating on the wind like a feather...but he thought it was probably both...

Was the Titanic destined to sink or was it just a fluke of circumstances? Well, creativity floats on a sea of imaginary possibilities, but if we don't keep the boilers lit and fed properly, it tends to stall and sit idle in this sea and may even sink if something slams into it too hard. That's my historical metaphor for today....So, let's explore it some more, Mr. or Ms. Creativity. You're the Titanic (no, that's not a big person joke), and you are floating on an ocean of imaginative possibilities...large waves, small waves, some crashing, some rolling around, some with small caps, some with gentle wisps, but all giving an ebb and flow that is slowly rocking you around and impacting on your consciousness. Then, along comes this BIG, cool idea (get the metaphor now?), and you think, hey, I don't like it, I think it may sink me because I can't handle it, so you try and steer clear, but no matter what you do, you end up hitting it, even a little, and it makes a dent in you. Now, if you had been more careful or prepared to see it coming, you may have avoided it or even decided to stop and admire it enough to take some pictures and make lots of $$ off of it (perhaps taking various parts to keep in the freezer for your buds back in the US.) , but being short-sighted and unprepared, it hit you and you weren't ready. So, now you either adapt (if you can) and make it part of you, or you sink. (Hopefully, not literally, but only out of the ocean of imagination.) Now, where did this big idea come from? IT is a permutation (ice) of the imaginary world (water, ocean) of which only a small portion is visible above the surface. Much more of it may lie hidden beneth the depths--that is what we often don't see (or visualize.) about creative possibilites. So, creativity can be both from nature and nurture. (We have to put something in the boilers, and we have to have an ocean to sail upon.) But without either one, we're just a "sitting duck" (or ship in this case.) stuck in "dry dock" waiting for something to happen.

So, the moral of the story is to keep your boilers lit, keep a sharp eye out for good ideas and cool waves, and enjoy the ride...(see, and you didn't even have to put your tray tables back into their full and upright position on this trip, now, wasn't that nice?)

So, to translate into surfer talk: Creativity is schwankity dank! (rolls with the waves...)

To figure out the top quote, here's a hint: Never eat anything bigger than your head.

Smile, and remember that the universe is not just curved, but is actually totally bent! (kind of like the sides of the Titanic...ironic isn't it?)