In Praise of Creativity

What is creativity?  Does every human being yearn to create?  Are we all capable of being creative? Is creating things a necessary component of our happiness or is it a rare gift that only a small percentage of human beings possess?

In our culture the adjective ‘creative’ is used as a way to identify especially gifted people who excel in music or the visual arts or sometimes, in business.  The implication is that some people are creative, while most are not.  The creative ones are setting the cultural agenda, while the rest of us are spectators and followers.

The result of this application of the concept of creativity is that most of us give up any claim on creativity and abandon our creative efforts early in life.  We cease learning that musical instrument, we stop drawing or painting, we tear up our early efforts in story writing or essays, we only sing when inebriated or in the shower, we give up on acting or mimicry, and we meekly submit to the dictate that tells us we are the audience and the ‘creative’ are the creators.

We can hardly be blamed for our retreat from these creative pastimes.  The pervasive evidence of our mediocrity compared to the virtuosity of the cultural icons insidiously robs us of our motivation to cultivate our own skills unless our talents are glaringly obvious or our drive is indomitable.  Why even try?  We will never attain those heights, so what’s the use?

But wait, the creative impulse still burns within us, and it often finds an outlet in other less culturally intimidating ventures.  We create interesting meals, we bake bread, we work in our gardens, we perform creative handyman tasks, we do woodworking, we refurbish old cars, we arrange and decorate our houses or apartments.  There are a thousand hobbies and avocations that we undertake to provide some means of ‘creating’ something.  We are clearly creatures who need to create!

Perhaps the biggest impediment to our creativity is the idea that our creative efforts must command an audience or be at a competitive level with the superstars we see on social media.  If one sits down and writes a song or a story, or paints a watercolor landscape, does it really matter whether the result is seen or heard by others?  It may be helpful to get constructive criticism or guidance from others to hone one’s creativity, but I believe that the creative act is worthwhile even if it is only experienced by the creator.  Most of the rest is vanity.  Perhaps creativity without reward is even purer and more satisfying in some basic spiritual way.

Think of all the creative output that has gone unnoticed and forgotten over the millennia.  There are probably moments of genius that never reached the public, never gave joy to others.  But they, and all the other billions of creative acts, from ingenious to trivial, gave joy and a sense of accomplishment to their creators.  We betray ourselves if we surrender our creativity because we will not be recognized or celebrated for it.  Most celebrity is short-lived.  And even the brightest stars are extinguished over time. 

The essence of human life is creation.   We should allow our hearts and our native curiosity to direct our passions and be indifferent to whether any acclaim comes our way.