What is Creativity?

So...what is creativity? A vision of discrepant or inconsistent possibilities...maybe...or is it just that creativity is an inherent result of the chaos that the universe exudes everywhere? Is there a scale for this or do we just "know" that someone is being creative and not just blowing smoke or descending into madness? Is there really a difference? The lack of a consistent definition is perhaps the ultimate ironic part of creativity...i.e. we need a "creative" definition of creativity, but we can't do that definitively...leading to an enignmatic conundrum. If the definition encompass such ideals as vision, inconsistency, branching, unusualness, and a tendency towards filling the incomplete areas with something, then how is this to be combined except by a creative mind itself?

More questions here than answers, but all possums aside (see picture), the connecting together of past experiences in a new and unusual way is perhaps the easiest way to begin a definition of creativity, but it is not, by any means, the end. From the perspective of one who has studied cosmology and some chaos theory, I have to admit that I think creativity to belong to that group of items that encompas universal chaos--drifting toward disorder. However, I also wonder at how the anti-chaotic forces of creativity may balance this--i.e. how creativity can find the most unusual connections between seemingly unrelated events or items--this is anti-chaotic in nature. Is, then, ultimately, a balancing effect and can we then measure or create a "scale" that reflects this? Hmmmm....I don't know if I have enough possums to conduct this experiment myself, but it is perhaps worth considering. This is why creativity interests me. It happens. No matter where you are or what you are doing, creativity can "strike" at any moment, but somehow some people seem more tuned into it than others--is this mutually inherent or is there a way to enhance creativity or one's ability to "channel" it for themselves? (Now, I doubt that I will create a creativity "drug", but it would cement my retirement significantly...hmmm...a pill or shot that enhances creativity, or perhaps a special info-mercial that people pay to download...) Anyhow, sweeping my mental drifts aside, the out of box thinking exuded above is inevitably part of the human mind's landscape of life. Who has not daydreamed in class (but not creativity class, of course...hehe)? Who has not imagined themselves able to fly (like Peter Pan) or perhaps sailing around the world on a pirate ship? (or on a spaceship?) Imagination, I think, is an important part of creativity and creating the vision necessary for doing the unusual. Life seems to grant us these moments of "inspiration" and as children, we are acutely tuned in...perhaps the greatest irony of today's society--those most attuned to creativity are often the ones least able to act on their creative ideas...however, maybe that can change...

What, then can I do now to be creative? Well...the work on my flux capacitor and time machine has ground to a halt...I can't seem to get it to work--I've even tried taking it past 88 miles per hour...(see Back to the Future movies...) However, I may want to do something smaller, but my nano-bots idea requires tools that are too small for me to move, so I've scrapped that too. So, I should just "build a better mousetrap", huh...well...I don't need to get rid of mice, plus, I've sponsored so many Rube-Goldberg competitions for kids that I think my brain starts producing alpha waves when someone just mentions his name. Zzzzz...what was I saying?

However, I do have some practical possibilities including designing and making a better portable multi-tool for assembling sets for plays, portable puppet stage plans (I have several ideas), a collapsible telescope design(still working on it, but stay tuned), a full cut-off sodium vapor bulb that is more efficient for outdoor lighting, geodesic structures using recycled plastic bottles (how's that for a "green house"?), rope from recycled plastic bags, an ultrasonic insect trap (makes cricket mating calls as well as those for mosquitoes, etc.), carbon-fiber sneakers that never wear out, and of course my favorite--the George Jetson collapsible flying car...(maybe that is a bit out there...)

So, what is holding me back on all of these and other creative exploits? Well, beyond the obvious time, money, and in some cases laws of physics, I suppose that background knowledge and a swift kick in the pants to get started are the greatest obstacles. The unknown or nifty new idea often finds itself "out of time" (Back to the future again...) meaning that either society, technology, or culture is not in sync enough to make it a reasonable possibility. Case in point-- if you are NASA, you send robots to Mars and the Moon in the 21st century instead of people. I suppose it is also the cognitive load of life that often stands in the way--obligations that we all have towards living--family, duty, honor, society, etc. We don't want to be branded the "crazy one" that went off on tangents and keeps after all of those nutty ideas. So, I suppose this fear paralyzes us to sit idly by, just dreaming of those things that we could do, but rarely doing them. That is also a part of creativity--expression and the drive to make things happen as well as a sense of priority and timeliness. Perhaps the time has come for one of my ideas above or my list of more (which I'll keep to myself), but I think the Possum Collider idea I can definitely throw out. What do you think? Ok...be creative...give a "half smile" :>