Pamela Poole's Blog - Posts Tagged "creativity"
A Desperate Call for the Creative Exiles
When the movie Divergent came out, I felt understood. Finally, there was story about how utterly crucial the creative, intuitive people in society are to the well-being of the whole. Despite the ease in which they are misunderstood and judged for their non-conformist ways, the world desperately needs them.
Creative people believe anything is possible, imagining the unimaginable and convinced it can be accomplished. Even if the goal is a long shot, they’re willing to take risks and will be the first to jump in and get to work, ignoring the naysayers whose voices have become a background buzz that’s plagued and discouraged them all their lives.
In studies of the life of Leonardo da Vinci, I’ve always been struck by his insistence that most people live a limited existence, unaware of what they miss by never looking around them in appreciation. If that was true in his time, he’d be astounded at how little we even look up from a cellphone to notice where we are or who we’re with. I live near NC State University, and was passing by the school one day right after classes began for the fall semester. As I sat at the traffic light to let students cross the four lane highway on their way to dorms on the other side, I watched how they barely bothered with the unwelcome interruption of looking up in a herd mentality to follow one another across the street, eyes back down to their phone screens. It was like a watching a bunch of zombies, except that zombies might have their heads (skulls?) up and they would’ve been vastly more interesting!
If those students were living life using their God-given gift of senses even part of the time, they’d unchain themselves to richer lives and would understand creative people more. For those like da Vinci, life is fascinating—brighter, ablaze with color, alive with movement, scents, tastes, and unusual sounds, and composed of intriguing shapes. There is something to learn about and enjoy all around them, not because their senses pick up more information, but because they take time to look.
In that way, though most creative people are considered to be introverts, they actually spend more time looking outside their own world than “normal” people do! They glean information and fuel for endless impossibilities from around them, while other people are looking down at typically narrow, self-focused pursuits. The creative ones get to experience heightened emotional responses because in their eyes, the world it not a blur—it is loaded with meaning and possibilities!
The creative people among us find it difficult to do monotonous, repetitious tasks, because they thrive on the excitement of discovery and accomplishing something novel. Public methods of teaching are the antithesis of how creative people think, bent on squashing dreamers and thinkers and stripping most artistic and creative courses. After all, a look at history shows that people have always feared them, preferring a complacent, controllable populace that does not challenge the direction of meaninglessness that they are being led into—exactly like the herd of students crossing the street to the tune of the Pied Piper on the little screens that control their lives. This truth has never been clearer than in the cookie-cutter mindset of America’s classrooms right now.
Stories such as the Hunger Games and Divergent reveal a great truth—whether they realize it or not, society needs creative thinkers, however reluctant, who can show them what it means to be alive.
Creative people believe anything is possible, imagining the unimaginable and convinced it can be accomplished. Even if the goal is a long shot, they’re willing to take risks and will be the first to jump in and get to work, ignoring the naysayers whose voices have become a background buzz that’s plagued and discouraged them all their lives.
In studies of the life of Leonardo da Vinci, I’ve always been struck by his insistence that most people live a limited existence, unaware of what they miss by never looking around them in appreciation. If that was true in his time, he’d be astounded at how little we even look up from a cellphone to notice where we are or who we’re with. I live near NC State University, and was passing by the school one day right after classes began for the fall semester. As I sat at the traffic light to let students cross the four lane highway on their way to dorms on the other side, I watched how they barely bothered with the unwelcome interruption of looking up in a herd mentality to follow one another across the street, eyes back down to their phone screens. It was like a watching a bunch of zombies, except that zombies might have their heads (skulls?) up and they would’ve been vastly more interesting!
If those students were living life using their God-given gift of senses even part of the time, they’d unchain themselves to richer lives and would understand creative people more. For those like da Vinci, life is fascinating—brighter, ablaze with color, alive with movement, scents, tastes, and unusual sounds, and composed of intriguing shapes. There is something to learn about and enjoy all around them, not because their senses pick up more information, but because they take time to look.
In that way, though most creative people are considered to be introverts, they actually spend more time looking outside their own world than “normal” people do! They glean information and fuel for endless impossibilities from around them, while other people are looking down at typically narrow, self-focused pursuits. The creative ones get to experience heightened emotional responses because in their eyes, the world it not a blur—it is loaded with meaning and possibilities!
The creative people among us find it difficult to do monotonous, repetitious tasks, because they thrive on the excitement of discovery and accomplishing something novel. Public methods of teaching are the antithesis of how creative people think, bent on squashing dreamers and thinkers and stripping most artistic and creative courses. After all, a look at history shows that people have always feared them, preferring a complacent, controllable populace that does not challenge the direction of meaninglessness that they are being led into—exactly like the herd of students crossing the street to the tune of the Pied Piper on the little screens that control their lives. This truth has never been clearer than in the cookie-cutter mindset of America’s classrooms right now.
Stories such as the Hunger Games and Divergent reveal a great truth—whether they realize it or not, society needs creative thinkers, however reluctant, who can show them what it means to be alive.
If Just Living Isn't Enough, You Might Be Divergent
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
--Hans Christian Andersen, The Butterfly
In my last blog, I began my call for creative people to free themselves from the slavery of a little screen full of the latest and greatest technology and remember who you are. Inspiration is all around us and can come anytime, anywhere, conveniently or not. Don’t miss it—be ready! The world needs your detours from the new normal into your role as a “divergent.”
Pablo Picasso once said, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Who talks like that anymore? Who stands still long enough to consider the sky or a spider’s web? We’ve been conditioned to have the attention span of a goldfish, and it is wrecking our relationships and other important aspects of our lives.
I was (thankfully) born before computers were household necessities in the United States, so I can say with conviction that had anyone told me how distracted Americans would be right after the turn of the century, I’d never have grasped that we’d have sold ourselves so cheaply. Sure, I’d read or heard about dystopian classic books, but naively assumed that since they'd explored so many possible consequences of losing what makes us human, society would consider themselves forewarned and would avoid the pitfalls of the road we were on.
That was in my younger days. Now absolutely nothing surprises me. Nothing.
Social satirist Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World, written in 1931 and published the next year, was written in reaction to his disgust in American values during a visit here. Outraged by the American culture of youth, commercialism, sexual promiscuity, and the obsessive, self-directed and inward-looking nature of so many citizens, he explored these pet peeves on a stage of general dystopian fear of losing individual identity in a world racing headlong into the technology of the future.
In that new world, Huxley set up the “World State” to establish a stable global society that permanently limits the population so that they are easily managed, conditioned to accept their station in the contrived life the State has ordered for them. Methods of controlling their lives include getting rid of natural reproduction and meaningful relationships, brainwashing children through education systems, discouraging critical thinking (serious books are banned, and movies have the added element of touch sensations and deal in pure emotion), and individual action and initiative is considered abnormal and reprehensible. The well-adjusted citizens in that society spend their leisure in communal activities that demand no thought.
Yes, you read that right--I did say he wrote that book in 1931. Don't take my word for it, use your critical thinking skills while it's still legal and go look it up. And while I personally can’t stop the train that the technology-driven masses are on, I can encourage creative people to smell the proverbial roses while they’re still growing. Better yet, go out and paint them plein air, or cut some to put in a cut glass vase and rise to the challenge to paint all the reflections in a still life! Poets, word-smith your observations on the delicate colors and textures in a rose, or the irony that such beauty comes with thorns. Musicians, craft a melody that makes us pause to listen to your interpretation, and make it so catchy that we hum it the rest of the day. Gardeners, brainstorm how to gift the world with a new variety of hardier roses. Architects, design a setting to show off roses to best advantage, and provide a bench where we can sit to contemplate their beauty.
Get out in the sunshine for a walk or bike ride, especially one that will likely take you to a bend in the road where you’ll stop in your tracks and gasp at the view. Think critically, be an individual, don’t follow the sheep glued to little screens while they follow one another off a cliff.
Embrace life as a divergent. Rise above the machines and show the world what it means to be human.
If you'd like to read some meaningful yet light adventures about creative divergents, check into my novel Painter Place and the upcoming new release HUGO in a few weeks on December 8. HUGO will take readers into Arles, France in 1989 for the Centenniel of Vincent's life there. For more synopsis of the series, check out my "Books" section on my FASO website at www.pamelapoole.com
Painter Place
--Hans Christian Andersen, The Butterfly
In my last blog, I began my call for creative people to free themselves from the slavery of a little screen full of the latest and greatest technology and remember who you are. Inspiration is all around us and can come anytime, anywhere, conveniently or not. Don’t miss it—be ready! The world needs your detours from the new normal into your role as a “divergent.”
Pablo Picasso once said, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.” Who talks like that anymore? Who stands still long enough to consider the sky or a spider’s web? We’ve been conditioned to have the attention span of a goldfish, and it is wrecking our relationships and other important aspects of our lives.
I was (thankfully) born before computers were household necessities in the United States, so I can say with conviction that had anyone told me how distracted Americans would be right after the turn of the century, I’d never have grasped that we’d have sold ourselves so cheaply. Sure, I’d read or heard about dystopian classic books, but naively assumed that since they'd explored so many possible consequences of losing what makes us human, society would consider themselves forewarned and would avoid the pitfalls of the road we were on.
That was in my younger days. Now absolutely nothing surprises me. Nothing.
Social satirist Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World, written in 1931 and published the next year, was written in reaction to his disgust in American values during a visit here. Outraged by the American culture of youth, commercialism, sexual promiscuity, and the obsessive, self-directed and inward-looking nature of so many citizens, he explored these pet peeves on a stage of general dystopian fear of losing individual identity in a world racing headlong into the technology of the future.
In that new world, Huxley set up the “World State” to establish a stable global society that permanently limits the population so that they are easily managed, conditioned to accept their station in the contrived life the State has ordered for them. Methods of controlling their lives include getting rid of natural reproduction and meaningful relationships, brainwashing children through education systems, discouraging critical thinking (serious books are banned, and movies have the added element of touch sensations and deal in pure emotion), and individual action and initiative is considered abnormal and reprehensible. The well-adjusted citizens in that society spend their leisure in communal activities that demand no thought.
Yes, you read that right--I did say he wrote that book in 1931. Don't take my word for it, use your critical thinking skills while it's still legal and go look it up. And while I personally can’t stop the train that the technology-driven masses are on, I can encourage creative people to smell the proverbial roses while they’re still growing. Better yet, go out and paint them plein air, or cut some to put in a cut glass vase and rise to the challenge to paint all the reflections in a still life! Poets, word-smith your observations on the delicate colors and textures in a rose, or the irony that such beauty comes with thorns. Musicians, craft a melody that makes us pause to listen to your interpretation, and make it so catchy that we hum it the rest of the day. Gardeners, brainstorm how to gift the world with a new variety of hardier roses. Architects, design a setting to show off roses to best advantage, and provide a bench where we can sit to contemplate their beauty.
Get out in the sunshine for a walk or bike ride, especially one that will likely take you to a bend in the road where you’ll stop in your tracks and gasp at the view. Think critically, be an individual, don’t follow the sheep glued to little screens while they follow one another off a cliff.
Embrace life as a divergent. Rise above the machines and show the world what it means to be human.
If you'd like to read some meaningful yet light adventures about creative divergents, check into my novel Painter Place and the upcoming new release HUGO in a few weeks on December 8. HUGO will take readers into Arles, France in 1989 for the Centenniel of Vincent's life there. For more synopsis of the series, check out my "Books" section on my FASO website at www.pamelapoole.com
Painter Place
