What is creativity? (part 1)

Often when people tell me they are not creative, I tell them, “Creativity is the ability to use other people’s ideas well.” The idea came from a college textbook that made a strong impression on me two decades ago: Creative Teaching Methods by Marlene LeFever.

My sister is getting married next month and because I live far away from her, I’m compiling a cookbook using The Great Family Cookbook Project. It’s fun to read the submissions & sending out little inspirational notes to the [would-be] contributors.

My next note will suggest the contributors don’t need to be original and will encourage them to share favourites from other sources. For example, one woman added “Angel Biscuits” and included her source: Company’s Coming Muffins and More. I need to include “Blender Hollandaise Sauce” from The Joy of Cooking—so easy and so scrumptious on asparagus or eggs benedict.

I found Creative Teaching Methods on Google Books (of course). In searching for the quotation above (if it IS a direct quote), I have discovered other gems, like this one:

Creativity has become a feminine word. Women are usually thought of as being more creative than men, more at ease sharing their emotions through drama, song and teaching. … “Of course not,” we say, but our attitudes don’t always back up our words.

Look a little deeper. Most creative people are both sensitive and independent. In our society sensitivity is a female characteristic, and independence is considered a masculine characteristic. (p. 37)

LeFever goes on to show that creativity is NOT just the domain of women. That’s good, because I know a lot of creative men: my brother Jeffrey (an insanely talented potter-photographer-videographer-painter-musician), my friend Grant (carver; wordsmith), the illustrious Robert Genn, my husband, etc., etc.

The problem is connotations in meaning. When most North Americans hear “feminine,” we tend to think female. The French would never make that mistake. Or when we hear feminine in relation to men, we tend to think effeminate and/or gay. True, some creative men are effeminate and/or gay, but lots of men (like the ones listed above) are not. It’s too easy to make false equivocations.

So technically, I have no problem with saying that creativity tends to be a feminine quality: not female, not effeminate, not gay, not limited to women. And I’m comfortable saying that independence is a masculine quality, but not male or beefy or limited to women. Of course, to say creativity is feminine implies softness, which is kind of true (think intuition), but it certainly requires discipline (more later), which has a masculine denotation. But creativity is NOT chiefly a womanly thing.

Do you agree or disagree? Why?

 

Originally published on 2conversations.

What is creativity? (part 2)

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When I was a kid, my mom sometimes accused me of being stubborn. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Both of us are strong-willed.

Mom and I are also curious, and share an insatiable desire to improve things. Living in Taiwan, my friend Crystal learned to recognize a look of critique in my eye and she would say, “If you were doing it?” I learned to check that impulse for criticism. The discerning eye can bring re freshing ideas, but a critical spirit is deadening: light and dark sides of creativity.

Here’s more from Marlene LeFever. Does it describe you or someone you know?

One of the most universal characteristics of a creative person is curiosity about everything: questions you wish wouldn’t be asked, insights that jus don’t dovetail with the thought you have been trying to communicate. The creative person is also imaginative. He or she actually cultivates imagination. The creative person is enthusiastic and discerning, knowing what’s good about his or her creations and what needs to be rethought. He or she will stick to ideas and productions that personal assessment affirms are worthwhile.

…

The creative person has a strong will. This often makes the student hard to teach. Creative people are convinced they know a better way, and it’s frustrating for others to admit that they sometimes do.

…

Creative students are independent in their thinking. They will not bend to the opinion of others. They enjoy being different. That marked independence often makes them leaders. This lack of bending adds some stress to their lives—and often to their teachers’ lives as well. However, this stress is one of the spurs to creativity. (page 42)

Do you recognize yourself in this description? Is there someone in your life who has some or all of these characteristics? What does it take to develop creativity like this?

What is creativity? (part 1)

Identity (part 1): grieving losses and change

When butterflies cocoon, it is the end of a life stage.

When our lives change, it is the end of something. It is also the beginning of something else, something potentially more beautiful.

Even so, no matter how good the result might be, we can’t see it. Changes bring identity shifts. We experience loss and we grieve.

One of my friends is a nurse. Well, she used to be a nurse. Now she’s a stay-at-home mom with three kids. When I met her, she was pregnant with the third. Because of family commitments and provincial regulations, she was unable to find appropriate work to keep her nursing license and had to let it go. She was grieving this loss – loss of identity, loss of options, loss of an accomplishment she had worked so hard to achieve. Her husband would say, “But what you’re doing right now is so important!” He was right, of course, but what she wanted (needed?) to hear was, “I know, sweetheart. It’s hard to let it go.”

Another friend had a similar experience with her teaching credentials. Because of their family situation it didn’t make sense for her to keep teaching, yet with a Masters degree in education, it was painful to release the career, the work. Never mind the conviction that it was the right thing for this life season; she grieved the loss.

Sometimes the grief comes from dreams unfulfilled, constantly choosing to let go of one hope for another. I wrote about that in a previous blog post called My Wailing Wall.

There’s a poignant scene in the movie Alice in Wonderland (2010), where Alice, a critical decision-point, encounters the caterpillar Absalom as he is spinning his cocoon.

Absalom: Nothing was ever accomplished with tears.

Alice: Absalom, why are you upside down?

Absalom: I’ve come to the end of this life?

Alice: You’re going to die?

Absalom: Transform.

It’s often hard to trust the process of transformation—or the God of the transformation process. But it’s crucial and necessary.