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Today's
Meditation:
We all define "creative" in different
ways. What's creative to me may be weird or
unpleasant to you. But creative thinking doesn't
have to be appreciated or particularly innovative in order
to be creative at heart. What our thoughts need to
be in order to be creative is simply to explore new
paths-- new ideas and new ways of thinking about things.
We start living by rote when we stop thinking
creatively. We simply do the same things we've
always done for the same reasons, and with the same
results. Some things make sense if we keep doing
them the same way-- I really like coffee the way I make it,
so I see no need to change it.
But I do have to admit that if I were to make coffee
differently, I might meet up with a concoction that I like
even more than I like the coffee I make now. There
really is "no particular virtue" in the way I do
it now-- only that I like it. That doesn't mean,
though, that I wouldn't like it other ways, and I'm
certainly not thinking creatively when I start to make
coffee, though.
On the other hand, I've been seriously and deeply
rethinking the ways that I teach writing and
reading. I constantly think of different ways of
evaluating students' work. I have to stay creative
because if I keep doing things the ways that I've always
done them, I'm going to grow stagnant and unchanging-- and
while I may still like my coffee a certain way after so
many years, I can guarantee you that I would not continue
to be an effective teacher if I were to do things the same
way for many years.
We're all creative at heart. Some create when they
work on machines, some are artistically creative, others
are creative as salespeople or athletes or managers.
We've got to remember always that creativity is within our
grasp, and all it takes is the thought that there's no
real particular reason for continuing to do something in
the way that it's always been done--so let's look for
other ways.
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