What is it about life that allows some people to be creative and not others? Or, more specifically, some people interested in being creative and others not.
In thinking about this, I decided to examine my past all the way back to the log cabin and realized:
I loved maps; listening to faraway baseball games on my transistor radio (nothing like a crackling Ernie Harwell); the book series on space exploration at my grandparents’ house; my copy of Richard Halliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels (from 1941, so much so that I bought the book on eBay a few years back); my first almanac in 1970; the private pilot manual I bought when I was 12; the chemistry set my parents bought me in the early 70s (the first thing I did was go into the back yard and just mix EVERYTHING together. I lived); zip codes; the dud Comet Kohoutek; baseball stats, including the ones I invented; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the Senate Watergate hearings as a 13-year-old.
What does this say, other than affirm what my kids think – I was a bit of a nerd growing up? It said I had – and still have – an insatiable curiosity about the world. I had to know. And still do. (Before you label me, I also played baseball, basketball, football and ice hockey).
If a strong aspect of creativity is the ability to connect the unconnectable and link the unlinkable, doesn’t it make sense to fill a kid’s mind with as stuff as possible? The more stuff, the more links. The stuff commonly known as useless information – that suddenly becomes useful.
So, I say to parents: let the kids watch cartoons. Let them explore. Let them ask. (Please!!) Let them read … anything. I’m not saying create a nerd; I asking that you raise kids that are curious about what’s down the block, around the corner, in the next town and in the nearest galaxy. It's okay to mix in video games -- in fact, limits are actually hard to enforce.
You never know when the Banana Splits will help you sell the next product.
Thoughts?
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*typing with "Banana Splits" theme song in my head... One banana, two banana, three banana, four...*
ReplyDeleteI'd equate the creativity quotient with how people tend to think about their ability to make art. "Oh, I'm a terrible artist!" The fact is, everyone can do art -- it's about freeing your mind from constraints of what it's "supposed" to look like and allow your brain to make connections that are implemented by your hands.
Nice post, Eric. It will have me thinking. After I get the Banana Splits song out of my head...
Nice article. I liked it because it was almost as if I wrote it about me, except for the part that shows your age/experience. ;)
ReplyDelete"an insatiable curiosity about the world".... Well said!