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.
Your blog — the other one — is half the reason I want to move to the Mont. You’ve created a virtual sense of community that enhances and expands upon the sense of the community itself. As to the purpose of your creation, whether for yourself, for others, or for the thing itself, I cannot attest. But I would have given anything to be part of the Alco-Crawl, so to me that suggests the beauty of the thing itself (the sense of community you’ve engendered, not the alcohol.)
Plus, I really want to see a link to my blog on the sidebar! It’s like hanging out with Ginsberg and Kerouac.
get back to work.
lou: i keel you.
ptb: thanks! i think you’re a tad overboard on the Ginsberg/Kerouac thing though unless you’re talking about HCG and Snoggie.
Glad to see you covered your ass on that one, Adam…by excluding Snog and I from the overboard bit. We are fairly cool, smart, funny, and most of all humble. Wa wa wa.
Yes‑I got the movie tickets, but had to work too late to go. And next time, knock on my friggin’ door and come up for a beer. Geez.
It was just a drive-by since I had somewhere else to go, sorry you couldn’t make it.