Thoughts on Creativity

There was a time, when I was in high school and college, when I thought of myself as "creative." I spent hours developing film in the dark room at school, or sitting in smokey cafes, writing bad poetry. I imagined myself one day living in a quaint village by the sea, writing a novel on an old-fashioned typewriter. I don't know that I ever took that dream seriously, but it was my dream nonetheless.

All that romanticism slipped quietly away in my later 20's, replaced by bill-paying and graduate school, and eventually having children. I would say that children are the ultimate killers of creativity, but that seems so ironic, because they are so creative themselves. I suppose the truth is they don't kill your creativity, but instead hoard it for themselves, funneling it all into elaborate imaginary play scenarios.

Anyway, I didn't miss it much until my dear friend from college announced she was publishing a novel.

I'm not surprised--Elizabeth was the only one of my close friends (all English majors) who actually pursued an MFA and continued to write after we graduated. Even back in college, I thought she was the most talented of us all, and the most persistent. Her novel is called Everything You Came to See, and it is beautiful and captivating and I am so proud of her for writing it.

It got me thinking about the role of creativity in my life, and whether I wanted to prioritize it more. Elizabeth has no benefactor allowing her to sit in a cabin by the sea; she has a job and a family just like I do. She made time and space in her life for writing because it was important to her.

Of all the priorities in my life right now, I suppose writing doesn't make it to the top of the list... but I do have this little blog, and I guess I can now explain why I'm writing it at all. Writing about books inspires me to read more, and writing about the things I make encourages me to be more creative at work. Creativity begets creativity! Maybe someday I'll have time to sit down and write a masterpiece, but for now this is all I need.