Creativity is Transcendence
What does it mean to be creative?
Part of being creative is establishing an individual world perspective distinct from our animal selves and our cultural expectations. Still, we can’t do that without constantly viewing ourselves simultaneously within the context of the world around us that is at the same time both intimately and distantly influencing us. Without diligence, it is easy to lose one’s way, losing our sense of destiny by forgetting the traits that separate us, reducing ourselves to the great-great-great grandchildren of ordinary apes in a world where we have sadly condemned ourselves to be nothing more than evolutionary animals no different from foraging creatures. This is not creativity.
In stories, we seek to write great protagonists, while in life, we too often write ourselves into the world as bit players, appearing at the whim of those taking center stage but who are only onstage because we are buying the tickets to build the cycle. We can’t do that. The creative individual has two eyes and keeps one on the world but the stronger and dominant one on himself. A creative person is a creature of his genes and the world, but he is also separate. He realizes that the future is not dictated by society, the times, or the past, but rather by his choices.
Fatalism is a coward’s path showered by letting the world rule rather than the individual, by giving up power rather than by exercising individualism, giving up personal responsibility, giving up introspection, giving up the power to choose one’s destiny, and worse, giving up the choice to express oneself truly. One must decide on the value of one’s brief life, whether history shapes a person’s life or if the individual changes history. I think both are true. How it will be answered will be the individuality and courage of the individual wishing to express himself and leave his mark, maybe even changing history through his insight and creativity.
Are you free to determine your future? This is not a rhetorical or philosophical question but a question of character. Are you free? Do you believe your actions matter? Do you believe your creative insights can change the world for others? A creative person is ever-evolving. Evolution means nothing more than change. Nothing stays the same. The creative person who doesn’t continue to create becomes stagnant. Boundaries must always be pushed. Even repeating the same successes eventually becomes brackish water and will wither away. We must transcend our programming, either biological or environmental.
Creativity is a spawning organism similar to its physical brother and sister. It seeks to reproduce, leave behind, create a continuum, and perpetuate. It is not satisfying to be an artistic monk in a monastery, but rather strive to create a dynasty of public children in the form of innovation that will continue to propagate. Creativity is a higher level of the same desire for procreation. Creativity is also a mental magnet that attracts and holds inward recollections mixed with outward stimuli, both emotional and statistical. Creativity is the kitchen blender that takes common elements to create a new drink, the drink changing depending upon the choice of common elements included. The crucial part of the process is the cook, not the elements. The cook makes the recipe and the rules, not the ingredients. Most of the world is non-creative: they are only what they eat. Creative people do not sit in front of the TV, munching on Pringles. Instead, they are not only the TV itself but also all the flashing lights, the drama, the emotion, and the intellectual inspiration. Creative people are the show the world is watching. Dare to be one.
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