"IFC S1: R35 - Catchup Entry" Creative Minds

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Creativity and imagination have always been the cornerstones of my thought process ever since I was very little. I could literally entertain myself for hours creating and thinking up "what ifs" and pushing the boundaries of possibility.

I have a vivid memory of singing stories out loud to anyone that would listen at age two. For the most part, this always brought smiles to my mother's face. I didn't know where these stories came from or the words, I just grabbed them somehow from somewhere and repeated them. On one occasion, my mother proudly called me to 'perform' one of my singing stories to a friend. I never knew where these stories would go, they were very organic. However, this one wasn't like the others. I began to sing and repeat the images and words that came to me and suddenly a very intense story emerged. I remember the story being very sad....two people that loved each other being torn apart - I felt it very deeply in my very young body - I saw these two people and felt them. The words became harder to speak as my voice suddenly filled with pain and tears began streaming down my face. Then I suddenly became too consumed with this story that came to me that I could sing no more. I looked up into my mother's face for comfort and found shock. In fact, they were both mortified. "You usually sing happy songs, honey, where did that come from?", my Mother apologetically asked. I didn't know! I didn't understand it myself. But in that moment, I learned that not everything is to be shared.

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In retrospect, I was experiencing what most creative people experience when they tap into something and try to express it.

When I was 12 years old, my school had a poetry teacher come for a voluntary poetry workshop. I had never had any instruction on poetry before this time. All the poems I wrote and read in children's books all rhymed. I wasn't particularly fond of school either so volunteering to take a poetry class to get 'out of my normal classes' was a great idea to me.

It wasn't anything like I expected! Simile and metaphor to paint words and ideas was all new and I unexpectedly felt this spark get ignited within me. This opened up a whole new perspective on writing and expressing. Ideas and inspiration were bouncing off the walls of my mind....and then the teacher said, "What I want each one of you to do is write a poem about 'teachers!'" Oh the disappointment! I was soooooooo disappointed!

Unfortunately, I never had a teacher that I admired at this point. I witnessed too many instances of over reaching rules, questions never answered, creativity and individuality dismantled. As a retaliatory and comical statement (for myself), I wrote a poem comparing teachers to the bark on trees. I remember it flowing quite nicely and making me laugh. I didn't take this poem seriously. There was no heart involved...but it was creatively fun. However, I just knew this creative endeavor of mine could possibly get me in a lot of trouble. But hey.....

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A few weeks later, I was already back in my normal classes and the Principal came to my class to call me out to speak with her. Oh yes, my heart dropped to my stomach, knowing that I was in trouble for writing that poem! To my complete astonishment, instead of getting in trouble, she gave me the news that my poem about teachers won our district's poetry competition and that it was going to be displayed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and that my poem would represent the teachers at my school. How's that for irony?! The joke was on me. When the day came to go to the Kennedy Center with other winners, I had to hold the secret that my poem wasn't what everyone thought it was inside me. I was very humbled and I learned that day that poetry was a powerful tool and that it didn't feel good to disrespect it in such a manner. This actually took the joy out of it for me that whole entire day.

One of the most profound lessons I had involving creativity would come a few years later. The lesson given by 'a teacher'...a good one ;)

I never liked reading books - that would require sitting still and I had way too much energy and better things to do. I found it very boring. The dreaded book reading and 'oral book report' was on my plate and as I so often did, I ignored this obligation and kept putting it off until I found myself with no time to possibly pull something together. I played with the thought of taking a failing grade or winging it and wouldn't know until that moment came.

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That moment would come way too fast and, somehow, I found myself in front of the class. I did what I could and memorized the author and title of my book. However, everything else that came out of my mouth that day, came from that creative, imaginative side of me. I simply made the story up on the fly and found myself weaving a pretty convincing story.

Like a surreal scene, my teacher sat fixed and smiling on a desk in front of me - my nerves greatly enhanced. I watched his eyebrows dancing with my words and occasionally letting out a laugh. And just when I thought I had accomplished the impossible oral book report, he started blasting me with a plethora of questions regarding the story. Something he didn't do with the other kids' oral book reports. It required me to access my short term memory and deliberate on the details like names of characters and that all important 'plot'. I soon saw the red flags emerge with each question - His questions becoming too deep and insightful to be merely a teacher on a mission to pick apart an oral book report. "He knows. Oh my God he knows!", I panicked. I felt the blood rush to my face and ears, my voice losing its enthusiasm, my eyes avoiding long glances in his direction.

Then the questions stopped and he just sat there and smiled at me for an uncomfortable length of time. "I read that book myself. I'm very familiar with it and I don't recall it being anything like you have just shared", he finally said as he paused in-between to let me absorb the gravity of my situation. "You know, I can't give you an A+ because that wouldn't be fair or right.....but, it takes a lot of courage to stand in front of a class and come up with something spontaneous like that. I actually enjoyed your story and am amazed by the creativity and imagination you shared. I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you an A- just because I found value in your story and I think that is just as important for you to know."

I learned a lot that day about what a truly good teacher is and I also learned that creativity had value. I could have done 100 book reports and never learned what I learned that one day just by the actions of this one teacher who gave value to creativity and imagination - He broke the rules!..... and I benefited from his wisdom. BIG lesson.

Throughout the remainder of my years, I learned to respect my creativity in whatever form it came. I used writing and poetry for answers, wisdom, and healing; my drawings to express the human mystery and beauty. This didn't come from some superficial source or anything that I knew, but something deeper/bigger that moved me to a greater perspective outside of the confines of my environment. I learned how to follow it into the deepest places within myself as well as to places outside...drawing upon this express-tapestry of living wonderment. This was always sacred space between time to me and a place that I imagined was shared by others - where profound ideas, dreams, great works are born.

Just as I didn't understand at two years old what exactly this was, I still can only speculate that we are like receivers of this creative collective consciousness that we are swimming in...breathing in at any given moment. We take this in and filter it through our own being and exhale it out through our own individualized expression.

In those earlier years, this creative energy, the words and images, the ideas all consumed me so much so that I felt, at times, I would surely burst. And yet, I could never fully retain and bring back with me the full breadth of inspiration that would flow through me. However, I seldom shared it with others. I always lived in two worlds...the creative one, and the 'normal' one.

The creative mind, I don't think, is given enough value or attention. And yet, I really believe that this creative mind is 'who we are'. We are co-creators - that's what we do. It exists in every facet of our lives whether realized or not. I don't think we are taught how to harness this or use it enough, to see where it might lead us/society or the planet. What are we without our creative mind and where would we be had we not had creative minds to lead us into the future?

Nearly every great mathematician, inventor, master artist, writer, musician has confessed that their great works came from something outside themselves. Nikola Tesla, DaVinci, Mozart, Royal Rife, John Keely, Georg Cantor (who actually went mad chasing after the mathematical problem of 'infinity') have all spoke of this. Then there are the many instances of simultaneous invention - how can this happen if not for some outer source, morphogenic field or collective live wire of inspiration that we tap into?

In conclusion, I would like to share a dream I had a few years ago that had such a huge impact on me in so many ways. It wasn't just a dream, but a glimpse at the value of creativity and imagination.

My husband and I were in this place we were visiting. It was an alternative living place of learning. Our living quarters was a very modest earth shelter made of environmentally friendly resources..natural...like perhaps straw-bale or cobb. There were others there living and some there visiting as well to learn self sustaining techniques as much of this knowledge has been lost to our generation.

There was one particular man that I was very aware of throughout the dream who had a wonderful charisma to him. It wasn't exactly that he was "in charge or the leader" but that he had skills and wisdom that the others respected very much.

We were given a brief tour of the community along with a narrative by this man of why these structures and community participation. Not all the structures were made of the same materials or in the same way....they seemed to carry the individuality of the builder....all shapes and sizes. There was one structure in particular that caught my attention as it was higher than all the others...like a tower. It used some sort of alternative energy with hydraulics moving its occupants to the top and back down again.

As evening fell, we went back to our simple house and discussed the day...much more aware of all the sounds outside due to the lack of lighting/electricity/machines. We could hear the crickets and frogs, wind through the trees...and then I was aware of community dogs roaming the perimeter making sure that all was well and safe.

The next morning, we arose and went to some daily event that the community had in a central building - a community center perhaps. There were older kids there, pre-teens and teens sitting at one table and the man (I'll call him wise man to limit confusion) gave these kids some artistic supplies....ie pens, pencils, papers of different shapes and textures. The kids immediately got to work creating with a great deal of joy and conversation....also collaboration between them in a non-competitive way. There was also a woman there that was taking chairs and placing them in certain variations as if they were part of a stage prop as she was very animated and involved in some creative process. Then the wise man and another community man which was very obviously familiar to him began speaking to one another throwing ideas back and forth in an enthusiastic manner. At this point, I realized that my husband's face was very much involved in the discussion and that this sparked something in him. It was at this point that I was aware of why I had never seen his face light up like this before and that was because he never had a good role model. That was quite profound to me as I also saw the potential in him through his own light of inspiration now showing.

When I saw the wise man and the other man sitting alone, I approached them with a question that I felt would be served well by their obvious life experience and wisdom. My question to the wise man was, "Do you think that it is possible to experience Peace fully in this world without suffering?" The response from him was very quick and with an 'absolute' sureness, "YES!". He then very briefly scanned the room of people and with a slight chuckle in his voice repeated his answer again, "Yes!". I thanked him and then mentioned that it is difficult to talk and share with others about these things. The woman in the room then interjected, "That is why we chose to be here." At this point, the wise man made his way around the room putting more artistic supplies in front of each person...occasionally whispering some bit of creative inspiration to get them going. I observed this for a few moments.....studying the process and the faces and then I GOT IT, "In this place IMAGINATION was held higher than anything else...this was the "key". Beside me, my husband had just started his project and drew a mountain with trees and in the middle at the bottom of the mountain was a carved out entrance with a horse standing at the entrance. I saw his whole being shining and realized that the horse had something to do with me that he was giving me.

It was at this point that the wise man sat beside me on my right side and said to me, "I think that you need to come back here and understand more thoroughly what we are doing." He then gave out another jovial laugh as he scanned the room....my eyes following his around the room and back together again as he penetrated my soul with a smile from some place deep and beyond and said, "We are creating 'Genesis' "

*The wise man also said somewhere in the beginning of our tour of the community center that nothing from the old world can be brought to this new place and (this is what Genesis was referring to at the end of the dream - it was not given in a religious sense)....in order to move forward in this new place, we had to leave the old behind and that we can only do this through the imagination and creativity. This community held this to be their highest priority and set aside time for it. It was very important.

Are we only scratching the surface to our unlimited ability to create, inspire and solve our most pressing problems? I think so. That is why I feel that the creative mind is worth investing in, giving value to, learning how to harness and use.

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Thank you @apolymask for these amazing IFC contests - You are like that wise man in my dream handing out creative tools to spark imagination.