Creativity – in the Box?

Somebody asked me how to get out of the box and think creatively. My answer is, “Get back in that box you threw away!!” There is an innocence in childhood and a joy in simple things. This is the beginning point of creativity. There are no limits in the child’s world until voices come saying, “Don’t do that!” “That’s too noisy!” “What are you doing!!” Soon the child learns to sit down and do homework to be quiet and trust that good things will come.

Have you ever seen a child play in a box? Although the child is in the box there is no way the box can contain the child’s imagination. A child can turn a box into an airplane or a luxury hotel. The box is a great kingdom where the child rules. The box is home for matchbox cars and stuffed animals. But as the child grows the box becomes a square cardboard object useful only as a throw mat or raw material to be recycled. Children look for trendy new toys advertised with their favorite animation. They want what is popular and beg mom and dad to buy them the latest toys and most of the time children get what they want. They find a way that works and stick with it. Somehow they get through college and get a job to occupy eight or ten meaningless hours the day. Some get married and raise two kids and a dog. Their kids grow up and want to play in the snow and bang on pots and pans but mom and dad just want the kids to be quiet and give them a break. In a flash the kids are grown up and the box is really empty. The routine that gave security and comfort and the trendy toys killed passion and creativity. All those popular toys from years ago are garbage and what remains at the end of life is the box.

Each of us has this box whether a student in elementary school or a dad going to work and coming home to screaming kids. It’s our nationality, background, family situation, wounds from life, and education. They all make up the box we are in and it really doesn’t matter what box you are in what really matters is what you do with that box. Many complain their whole life comparing their box with others and talk about getting out their box but they will always be there and their box will always be the same grumpy box with no change. Others try to throw the box away and start new from nothing. For a while they are free but we cannot leave behind who we are and where we came from. The box is part of our set up. It is using that set up to make something new that brings creativity back into the box.

In 1997 I had my own box set up like many other college graduates. I got a job I liked and began preparing for graduate school. I bought a new car and was sure this was what life was really about. I studied natural science and worked in a leading laboratory in Molecular Genetics. I was sure I knew what I was doing in life. I was going to discover new tumor suppressors and advance medicine for humanity. Then to put it simple, “the shit hit the fan”. The laboratory was not renewed funding from the NIH, the car was all messed up on a rainy day collision and the box I had built up could not hold me anymore.

I had to take a step out of my comfort zone. Although I was getting out of the box I thought was my life I was really stepping into the box I left when I was a child. I used to play in the box and fly over the whole world. I would take maps with me and mark the places I would visit. I would say to my brother, “I’m going to live there!” I was not happy because I left that box behind. I put it in the garbage with the other recycle stuff. It took the big wake up call of losing my job and crashing the car that got me to find a creative solution in that child’s box.

At that time there was not much internet but there was a demand for teachers in Asia. I was ready to go to Seoul but there was a problem with IMF. My dad told me it was the worst time to work in Asia. Friends told me that it was crazy to leave America then because I had so much already set up. Even a stranger at the Korean consulate in the NBC tower in Chicago told me, “If you are going to work in Korea do not accept Korean won!” Friends couldn’t understand how I could throw away my science background to teach English to Korean kids. These were all the naysayers. I wouldn’t have gone unless I knew for sure this is what I needed to do. John 12:24 encouraged me, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seed.” If my life is to be fruitful I will have to suffer some misunderstandings and sacrifice. I had no guarantee that it would be worth it. I thought if worse comes to worse I could come back home in one year. Now almost twenty years have passed in Korea.

The country that was under IMF soon worked themselves out of the debt problem. Then again in 2001 there was a scare in the stock market and many investors got out. A few of my friends put their money into the Korean stock market at that time and are millionaires now. But my success does not come from making money. Money has done nothing good for these guys. My success comes from my life here. I stayed and made friends with Korean people. I am really blessed. I met a Korean graduate student and together we opened Bible study for university students. The students who came stayed and after years some of them became missionaries to South East Asian countries and to the Middle East. I taught English full time but in my spare time I studied the Bible with college students. In doing this God provided everything for me. That graduate student became my wife and although we disagree about Steemit and crypto I love her like the first day I met here almost twenty years ago. Our family had tough times. The biggest was infertility but now we have two big boys. They are awesome miracle kids.

I love my father a lot and respect him but I have to say he was wrong. In 1998 he said, “You did a lot of stupid things but among all of them this is the most stupid thing you ever did.” It was just two years later he came to Korea and said, “This is the best thing that ever happened to you.” I have come to learn a lot of lessons since then. The first is that teaching one person is the most important thing you can do in your life. Teaching is not telling someone what to do but sharing your life so they can follow. No one can be a teacher without an example to follow. The second is to get back into the child’s box. Forget about getting out of the box or switching boxes with someone else. Just get into that box you played with when you were a child. You don’t have to be a millionaire. You don’t have to be anything. You do need to live the life you have. This is a blessing to so many people you cannot imagine.

I wanted to use this class to show you how to draw a groovy picture using online software but you can search google and do that yourself. Creativity does not begin with a computer program but creativity begins with going back and playing in that child’s box. Don’t be afraid to get out of the box of your comfort zone and try something new today. Don’t be discouraged by people who say it cannot be done. Because in two years they will say, “That is the best thing you did in your life.”

Some have asked me for more of the story but I will get to the point here. This is a blog from Steemit a platform that got me to think outside of the box by going into the box my kids played with. Don't be a Steemit drop out following a boring pattern. I notice Groovy School can use some improvements. Tell me what you want to here more of and I will write about it. If not then I will just play in my own box and give you some updates about Groovy School kindergarten. I know I'm crazy but someone's got to do it.

This is Groovy School Creativity

I may get out of this box just yet.

How about you?