Storm breaks into pieces,
Clouds charge the horizon.
Revolving of the heavens
Generates all movement.
Without movement, there could be nothing created in this universe. The revolving of the heavens can generate wind, rain, thunder, lightning. The revolving of the earth enables us to have day and night, the very cycle of the weather, the seasons, and the growth of plants. Movement is responsible for creativity.
Followers of Tao value initiative, but mere aggression is not enough. One needs creativity. This can mean the ability to solve problems, to think of unusual strategies, or to compose poetry, music, and painting. In all these cases, one moves in concert with Tao not by blind aping, but by giving intelligent counterpoint and harmony. Creativity does not mean the arbitrary making of something out of our cultural minds. Rather, it is spontaneous movement in tandem with Tao, a movement that will generate life and not misery for others.
One has reached the ultimate levels of creativity when one has mastered a skill so thoroughly that it can be forgotten. Look at heaven and earth. Do they think about creating the weather, the seasons, and the cycles of growing? They only go on revolving according to their nature, and the rest is generated without any thought or work on their part. This is truly effortless action and is considered the highest skill that a follower of Tao can attain.
Do you think you are creative? Most people don’t believe they are, and yet they create something every day – a meal, a letter, their appearance, a joke, a story, whatever. Our society works to tell us we are not creative, pouring images of pre-fabricated products at us so we don’t have to think about creating things on our own. When people had to build their daily needs for themselves, they felt more creative. How many of us play music in our homes anymore, write letters to each other, simply talk to each other to create our own entertainment? I think the popularity of blogging comes from our need simply to hear and tell stories to each other.
When I am working on an art project, I get into the creative flow, very much in the moment, with the Tao. When I am in my garden, creating new life by planting seeds or trimming plants to enhance their beauty, I feel this same flow. These days I can sometimes get into it just talking with people or going about my daily routine, as I learn to be more aware of my surroundings and what is happening around me and within me. I look at my blog posting and see the header of “Create New Entry”, and get that satisfaction of creating something new, a thought I hadn’t realized before or an idea that just popped into my head. I know these things were really there before, but I hadn’t verbalized them, just as I often see an image of what I want to paint or know how I want a plant in my garden to look before I trim it.
Creativity is about taking what is in our heads and making it happen, whatever that may be. We are all creative, every day, every moment, since we are making things happen merely by our existence and presence in the world. So don’t say you are not creative – you are.
4 Responses
I couldn’t agree more!
I have long “preached” that everyone is special and creative. I think we celebrate “Art” not because the individuals who become well-known doing it are more special than everyone else, but because they are examples of what is part of all of us.
I usually throw out a caveat when discussing “Art.” That caveat being s sort of “don’t get me started.” I’m going to “get started” briefly here. I have little use for “famous” “Art.” To me, anything created by the hand of humanity is just as much “Art” as anything else. A chair, a car, a shoe, or any other utilitarian item is, by having a shape, an appearance, is just as much “Art” as any famous painting or sculpture, even if every decision made during the creation process was based on practical/engineering considerations.
Sometimes I look at one of the framed things hanging on our walls, say one above a sofa, and it occurs to me that I get as much aesthetic enjoyment out of the appearance/presence of the sofa as “art work.” In at least one case it is a sofa used so seldom it may as well be considered a “sculpture!” Somebody made the choices of shape/fabric/trim which resulted in the sofa existing at all. I suspect, although many of those choices had to be based on the utility of the sofa, that the creator had an intent that it be found pleasant to look at (in fact, my Honey selected the fabric out of thousands of available possibilities).
Aha! One might say. If somebody makes something like a painting, or a sculpture with no practical use, that elevates/differentiates the process/product from the sofa (car, coffee maker, shoe). Well, it certainly subtracts the practical from human creativity, but I say that makes it not “more” than the sofa, and perhaps even “less.”
I might even say that the whole mythology of “The Arts” is just a creation of rich people over the centuries. I have said before that if someone didn’t know the Mona Lisa painting was “Something,” they probably wouldn’t give it a second glance. I’m not picking on that particular bit of paint and canvas, just using it as a quick example.
This morning my Honey made eggs benedict for me. Now there’s some creativity! I liked looking at it, and I liked eating it.
Basically, of course, I agree with your final statement about creativity.
“think we celebrate “Art” not because the individuals who become well-known doing it are more special than everyone else, but because they are examples of what is part of all of us.”
Indeed. I like that idea. ;^)
Have you seen the ugly couch contest? There’s some bad art for you…
http://www.norwoodmall.com/ugly/index.html
Great post, Donna. Oh to be in the flow of effortless action! 🙂