Making Life Work

The Creative Spirit: Wisdom from Within
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new” … Albert Einstein
“No, I won’t take medication. I need to be melancholy, even depressed in order to write my novel, and without my novel to keep me busy, I feel like nobody.” The lanky man with steel blue eyes and graying hair stared down at his docksiders. “Since I got fired, the novel is all I have. I have told you this before. When I take my anti-depressant, I actually feel better, and when I feel better, I can’t make the characters dark enough. I write drivel, drivel I tell you.
You tell me it is OK to feel happy, but writing is most interesting when one explores misery. I am at my most creative when I am miserably depressed.” He waited for my reply but, having had this conversation with him before, I chose not to engage. It feels pointless to explain to a former executive that there are benefits of moving from crying jags to cheerful days. The last time I tried to reason with him I got argued out of my position by a passionately creative soul intent on sacrificing mental health for moments of feeling fulfilled from inside.
When I summered at Columbia University after college graduation, I volunteered as a subject for psychology experiments. It was a great way to earn pocket cash, meet interesting male graduate students (I went on to marry one), and learn a bit about my newly chosen career.
One experiment was on creativity, which sounded great. I was given a test, and some minutes later, informed that I was at the top of the creativity scale. Speechless, I asked what that meant. “What do you do for the fun of it?” I was asked. I said that I wrote a column for the high school paper and edited the college yearbook, went to art museums for eye candy, and harmonized in my head when people sang songs.”
The research team said that these ways of entertaining myself indicated that the test was right, and that I was highly creative. Not sure what that meant, I decided to learn what creativity is.
I learned that creativity exists when key skills in any field come together in new ways. One must have the skills intact. Without knowledge of grammar, it is impossible to write a great novel.
To these skills add a unique way of thinking: imagine new ways of creating a story, rather than rewriting a story told many times. But the key in creativity is passion. We have intrinsic motivation to be creative: one writes simply for the joy of writing, builds for the joy of building. The work becomes literally a labor of love.
Did you know that Albert Einstein’s fascination with physics began at age five? When he was sick his father gave him a small magnetic compass that infallibly pointed to the north. Einstein played with this for hours in what was to become a life-long passionate relationship with discovering what truths lay hidden behind everyday things.
This is the creative passion that propels great art, music, and scientific discoveries. And it can propel you…to quilts, woodworking projects, and new ways to cook….
As fall envelopes our islands, some of us treasure the time to reflect after the frenetic summer months of serving others. This is our time,”
We say to one another in hushed terms, so the visitors won’t be offended. So this fall, perhaps you can plan a creative project of your own. Do you want to learn to quilt? Feel a new song inside needing to be sung in three-part harmony? Is a wood working project is knocking on your heart? If so, here are two insights to help you create your fun:
• Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity. It is frightening to buy materials for a quilt that might look dreadful after you put hours into it. But it is this fear of failure that creates the very passion needed for a unique quilt.
• A childlike freshness is what makes the creation possible. Einstein, daring to explore travel in a beam of light, asked impertinent questions with the naivety of a child and the brilliance of a scientist. Creativity takes root in childhood when we question to learn about the world.
To Consider: This fall, what would stoke my creative spirit? Why am I not getting the quilt supplies or wood working materials so that I can revel in the personal pleasure of making something from nothing? And what would happen if I gave myself wing to grow?
To Read: Julia Cameron. How to Avoid Making Art (or anything else you enjoy). James P Tarcher. NY: Penguin Books. 2005
(Coche of Stone Harbor educates the public in mental health issues. She can be reached at jmcoche@gmail.com or 215-859-1050.)