Category: Thinking

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.