Life’s a Traveling Circus
Life’s a Traveling Circus
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
I love that quote! It’s from Albert Einstein. I have never had more fun than when I’m in the process of creating something, when I’m trying to transport the picture in my mind through the fingers on my hands. With my music blasting, it’s the only time in my life that I can say without a doubt I’m completely in the present moment.
Morning Glory
Why aren’t we taught from an early age that to express our creativity is to develop our innate intelligence? I think one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me and my brothers was their insistence that we could do anything we really wanted to do. What if we looked at our children not as “our” children, as tiny extensions of ourselves, but as little packages of explosive potential, and made a point to encourage that potential, instead of trying to direct it into channels that are more comfortable for us? Do we fear it because it’s a form of (somewhat) controlled chaos?
But isn’t that precisely what’s fun about it?
To start with a blank piece of paper and end up with the vision inside your mind? To pick up a silent instrument and convey emotion through the notes that bubble from your head outward to your voice or hands? To write an elegant piece of software that performs a much-needed function? To craft an object that is a perfect embodiment of its utility? There is creativity to be found in every aspect of life; we just don’t give it the value we should.
What if we could make creativity the focus of education? Look how far we’ve come with just the people who’ve managed to break free from the confines of our educational prisons. What if we could give that to every child; the blossoming of the creative force inside them, the realization that they’re unique in all the world, a recognition of the gift they’ve been given. (And don’t kid yourself, it’s a gift we’ve all been given; we just don’t see it, don’t believe it, or are too afraid to try (and here I raise my hand). Like the old Sam Cooke song says, “What a wonderful world this could be”.
