I’m not creative like an artist or musician or a poet or a chef or a filmmaker or a writer, but I am creative. I’m creative because my need to to build and support rather than destroy or undermine makes me a creator. Creating community or reinforcing networks might not be as immediately edifying as a well written poem or a pretty tune or a tasty dinner, but I think intangible creativity of that sort [parenting could be another example] lets the creator retain his creative integrity longer.
What I mean by creative integrity is that a creator should create not for his own edification or the use of others, but for the creation itself, that it may be. Appending value onto the creation is necessary and appropriate, as is edification and effective use, but I feel most edified during the process and completion of creation. Effective use can be striven for, but is not guaranteed, which is why I feel it is secondary to the existence of a creation itself. There is a sort of amazement at accomplishment and a simultaneous loss of power in a finished product. That moment of equilibrium maintains creative integrity. If the amazement rules, ego can take precedence over the act of creation. If others begin to determine the creative path, the creator becomes an automaton.