Suffering and creativity

True creativity, according to jazz musician Eugene Lowry, is like a river. One bank is "suffering," and the other is "grace." The tighter the banks, the faster the flow.

Lots of creative people are happy, contented, jovial types who get along equally well with two-year-olds and rattlesnakes. Others are depressed, miserable, and driven to create masterpieces that bring them no joy whatsoever.

"Human salvation," said Martin Luther King Jr., "lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

I think we should all try to pull away from the model of the unhappy person driven by inner compulsions to draw, write, sing, design, or in some other way express a creative idea. What do you think?

A hiatus

This blog series is going on vacation until I get my moorings. Cruising the web I see nothing but praise and adulation for creativity. Classes abound for improving creativity. Everybody wants to be creative. I decided to investigate "innovations" and the 4th item on the first page directed me to a company that makes portable tire inflating tools.

In this context it's hard to make a case that being creative is a tough life and that we should extend understanding toward those so afflicted.

I believe in my premise but lack a sense of being anchored to reality.

If you have any thoughts about the struggles of the creative person, please send me email or add a comment to this post.

jg

Creative people innovate

"Students who are both intelligent and highly creative often make mediocre grades in school."

I began this post thinking I would find something about the role of creativity in history and was about to give up when I stumbled on a marvelous set of pages by the Smithsonian Institute.

There are 43 web pages there giving fascinating details about some of the greatest innovations in the history of the U.S.

If you've ever puzzled over definitions of creativity, leave those concerns behind and spend some time visiting these pages. You'll know what creativity is at its finest after a few minutes at this site. Guaranteed.

What is creativity anyway?

Nobody goes around snarling about creative people. As a class, these people are admired. Most people who aren't especially creative wish they were and will take classes, read books, and do everything they can to spark the creative genius they believe must be within them. "I envy you," they often say to a person who has just demonstrated some measure of creativity.

Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychiatry, was fond of creative people. He said, "In their knowledge of the mind they are far in advance of us everyday people, for they draw upon sources which we have not yet opened up for science."

What sources? Creativity is a function of the brain. That's all a creative person has: the ability to think, imagine, plan with a brain that runs free.

The reality is that creative people don't think of themselves as creative. If you know someone who claims to be creative, it's a sure thing he or she isn't. Creative people don't talk much about the condition.

Creative people do not work for the praise of others, but to satisfy what is within them.

Tip #1 when dealing with creative people...

Don't rub it in. Be friendly, accepting, tolerant, fun-loving around creative people. Don't let them know you've labeled them.

What is your best advice for dealing with creative people?

Send email to hodi@mindspring.com

Symptoms of the Creativity Syndrome

Creative people get more than their fair share of bumps in life, and this blog is dedicated to showing true sympathy to these people and sharing a tip or two for coping with the Creativity Syndrome.

You probably have the Creativity Syndrome (CS) if you experience some of the following--

* You never say "I have an idea" because you know where talk like that will get you: nowhere
* You've never taken a creativity enhancement class or studied how to be more creative
* You can think of at least ten ways to solve a given problem at work, but you're careful not to talk openly about any of them
* You name your kids "John," "William," Mary," or "Sandra"
* You draw, write, compose, invent, or engage in other clandestine activities
* You stay off committees
* You don't run for public office

In spite of trouble involved in being creative, you manage to struggle through life feeling a bit out of synch with everybody else.

And that's okay--until you need a job or are trying to start your own business or discovered after the wedding that your partner in life isn't creative and doesn't understand people who are.

Check this site and follow me as I learn and share more about the uphill road that creative types face and what we can do about it.

jg