More thoughts, reflections, and musings on living creatively
by Doug Smith

The Creative Life pushes against limits
Sometimes, the creative life simply flows around limits, finding a free flowing path unimpeded by resistance. And, sometimes it will bust right thru any walls built to fence you in. In our Child's Play days we made such daily proclamations of the creative life that people expected and wanted a creative experience around us whereever we were. And we gave it to them.

It helps encourage curiousity when you're wearing green, yellow, blue, orange, or red coveralls with matching shirts and shoes. Those were the days before sneakers cam in many colors so we bought fabric paint and painted our own shoes to match the rest of our costumes. What would be a similar costume today for someone seeking to make the world safe for creativity? How should a creative artist dress? What is your next look?

It's all related in the creative life. Connected. Touched. Touching. Pushing against the edges and brushing fate on a daily basis. "That was fun" you tell fate as it narrowly misses shaving you into oblivion. "May I have another?"

The Creative Life requires flexibility

There is no predicting what great and surprising possibilities could emerge. Will this be the material  you need to finish that one magnificent novel? Will that turn in the road lead you to a place of discovery? If you suddenly change will you need to establish new relationships? Will you remember where you put your new shoes?

The art of taking creative steps leads to steps unknown. Scenery changes, faces change, climate changes, atmosphere and ambience changes, all requiring adaptibility without end -- maximum flexibility. Wiry and spry like a dancer. An emerging saxophone solo in a cool blue tune.

A painter's mother's smile; barely touching the surface. I keep in mind, and I find this to be both reassuring and helpful, that there are always more possibilities. There are always ways for you to create a life of substance, of meaning, and of joy. Every train that leaves, leaves behind another train on its way.

You are meant to be creative

We all know people who are creative. Some people appear to be more creative than others, a brighter flower, a more vibrant buzzing presence. Some people apply their creativity more often, in bigger ways, with greater influence, to more effect and with more impressive results than it seems we'll ever realize. Other people may hardly seem creative at all -- they don't seem to try new things or test any boundaries or develop new ideas, or invent, or ever buy new shoes. And yet, their brilliant minds could be percolating on unhatched ideas so big they would sag the floor of your basement.

Where do you fit on that spectrum? Is creativity an exclusive gift reserved for self-declared artists and professional entertainers? Or, is creativity a gift available to everyone?

There are thousands of ways to express creativity. People show their creativity in endless subtle as well as outrageous ways. Some people do display their creativity more visibly, audibly, or publicly than others. It is there. It is a resource. It is available to you.

Creating The Creative Life

Take those choices. Create those possiblities. Insist on discovering, developing, and using your gifts. What are you waiting for? Resistance is everywhere -- live the creative life anyway. Build, refine, develop, create. Life gets in the way -- live the creative life anyway.

Take what life gives you and on top of that build something better. Victor Podagorsi and June Podagrosis did not wait or someone to hire them. They  did not wait and hope that someone would recognize their talent. They created their own theatre company, an organization built on the expectation that talent is everywhere, and they were right. They encouraged people to create stories, poems, songs, pitcutes -- all tyupes oif wonderful works of art. They did it one school at a time, three-hundred schools (and more) a year.

Andy Laties didn't wait for someone to hire him into the idea bookseller job. He and Chris combined their diverse creative knowledge and energy and opened their own store. They reinvented the neighborhood bookstore and innovated like crazy until they built a following and changed the game.

When the game changed yet again, and big box stores crowded them out, they simply reinvented their roles, recreated their perspective, and found another way to create great places to learn, live, and buy books.

When your dream doesn't exist, go create it. Craig Alton didn't wait for someone to design an interesting job for him. He taught college, he hosted radio shows, and when the need for a new road developed he paved that new road with an innovative Chicago touring company based on aspects of Chicago's legendary wild gangster past. Nothing like it existed before, but he made it happen.

What's your  story? What creative life do you want to lead? What can (will!) you do right now to get started?

The Creative Life Is An Open System

Ideas fly in and ideas fly out. Collaboration connects the creator with the Creator and all of creation in an open opportunity of sharing, caring, and bearing new gifts.

When you tear down the walls the tide rises bringing waves of creative beauty, creative innovaction, creative brilliance.

"But don't some people work best in isolation?"

"Perhaps. Maybe. Still, once thir ideas are available to the world others are likely to play. Creativity wants to be open."

"What if they keep their new ideas secret?"
"Once an idea has been thought -- by anyone anywhere -- an echo resonates quietly everywhere, creating an eventual connection. Some one else, possibly someone more open, will think of the same idea -- without stealing it: it simply blooms in more than one brain at the same time, hungry to emerge, eager to bless the world with more vibrant living."

"Are you saying that there are no unique ideas?"
"All ideas are unique and yet also connected. Any thought once thought becomes singular and universal: an idea coined and circulated, available to all."

"How?"
"Isn't that a great mystery? Isn't that a wonderful and tantalizing question that you ask? 'How does this happen?' Perhaps the same ways that connect us all -- the threads, the waves, the energy, the source. Perhaps the same energies and undercurrent that influence the original idea also sparkes clones or echoes of the idea that are available for others to grasp. Ideas want to be born!"

"You're starting to sound weird."
"What's your theory? Make an offer!"

"I don't have a theory.  I'm just curious about what you mean by an open system."
"Fair enough. It's open to ideas. Permeable. The system is the essence of the impulse to create. We think, we meditate, we pray, we play, and ideas come to us. Where do they come from? Did we really each of us generate those ideas? Are they distinct, unique, unable to exist without a singular creator? Or are they the product of all? The output from an endless input of data from sources surrounding our every instant?"

"Well?:
"Those are questions. Your answers may depend on your driving conditions and habits of life. Milage may vary..."

>>The Creative Life, Part three

<<The Creative Life, Part one

Connections

Craig Alton's Gangster Tours

Victor and June founded Child's Play Touring Theatre Company

Andy Laties' book on independent bookselling: