3-C – SEVERAL USEFUL OBSERVATIONS

  1. Creativity involves navigating between and among the constraints and opportunities established by the environment.

2.  We tend to see even more constraints (boundaries) than really exist.

3.  There is wide latitude within the boundaries.

4.  Sometimes creativity involves changing or violating the boundaries themselves.

SEEING RELATIONSHIPS

Creativity is a matter of seeing new relationships, like finding a fruit that guards the house, is incredibly loyal and plops itself into your cereal bowl.  Al Capp invented just such a creature back in 1948 in his comic strip "Li'l Abner".  It was called a Shmoo.¹

Odd?  Yes.  Unreasonable?  Nope, the shmoo was just new and shocking, because it appeared to violate the laws of nature, including those about animated phalluses. But wait a minute.  The laws of nature are merely boundaries.  They're just one more wall of rationality.  And they've been vaulted before. 

The laws of physics tell us that one body cannot occupy two places at the same time.  Well, the essence of that law was violated thousands of years ago, with the first letter.  One's thoughts could be in Athens, and in Corinth, at the same time.  And if we take Descartes at his word, "I think, therefore, I am", (cogito ergo sum) – an ancient author simultaneously existed in both places, since his thoughts did. 

Here's an interesting thought.  I moved in with you the moment you opened this blog.  What's for dinner?

The telephone and live TV are simply better violations of the same law, because the thoughts are truly simultaneous whereas the letter writer had probably forgotten the thought by the time it got to Corinth.  In order for letters, phones, telegraphs, and TV's to be invented someone had to believe that the laws of nature could, in effect, be broken.  And one of the biggies is the definition of “place.”  It used to be static.  I had to get home before I turned on the tube or made a call.  The cell phone made “place” dynamic.  Place is wherever I, and my phone, happen to be at the moment.

What About You?

So now we've established the concept of creativity.  It is the Great ISM; which requires both insight and action.  Do you recognize it?  Probably so.  But the big question is, have you experienced it in your own life?  Do you know what it feels like?  In short, are you creative?

 Most of us say "no" because we've never done anything big with it.  We've never written a symphony, much less a hit song.  We've never painted the Sistine Chapel, much less our own house.  We never really invented anything.  So we're likely to sit back and content ourselves with identifying creativity rather than practicing it.  That makes us as useless as a drama critic ... all talk and no action.

The fact of the matter is we've all been creative.  Most of us just missed that fact because we never labeled our behavior as such.  And that's because we didn't understand the various types of creativity.  Remember, creativity is nothing more than vaulting the wall.  Composing a symphony certainly qualifies.  But so does inventing the automobile, and much to our surprise, so does rearranging office furniture to improve work flow.  Creativity exists to the same degree in all three ventures.  And that's a point we often miss.  The action determines the existence of creativity, not the fame and fortune that might follow it. 

So far we’ve done two important things.

1.  We’ve established that creativity has three aspects:

Ø    Invention, Synthesis and Modification.

2.  We’ve also established that you trigger creativity by relaxing one or more of the constraints imposed by the Wall of Rationality you currently inhabit.

So congratulations, you are now willing to consider life beyond the wall.

 

End Notes

1.     The precise description of a schmmo is “…the lovable creature [that] laid eggs, gave milk and died of sheer esctasy when looked at with hunger. The Shmoo loved to be eaten and tasted like any food desired. Anything that delighted people delighted a Shmoo. Fry a Shmoo and it came out chicken. Broil it and it came out steak. Shmoo eyes made terrific suspender buttons. The hide of the Shmoo if cut thin made fine leather and if cut thick made the best lumber. Shmoo whiskers made splendid toothpicks. The Shmoo satisfied all the world's wants. You could never run out of Shmoon (plural of Shmoo) because they multiplied at such an incredible rate. The Shmoo believed that the only way to happiness was to bring happiness to others.” The schmoo was the number 1 merchandising phenomena of the early fifties, featured in Lil Abner the leading newspaper cartoon series of its day (60 million readers per day).   Source:http://www.al-capp-lil-abner.com/

 

  © 2009 Joe Anderson