Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

More on Passion versus Aptitude

The Font of Creativity

When I lived in New York City I often went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What an experience that was...talk about sensory overload...What some people are capable of staggers the imagination. After a few hours my small bio-processor always threatened to shut down. I love art and have taken a few courses but there is no way I can or ever will be able to do what some artists can. The sculpture on the floor, what hangs on the walls and the objects in the display cases are awesome. I can't draw a straight line, or a curve for that matter but I know what excites that wonder inside me and knowing excellence when you see it has some value... at least Hesiod says so.

The same holds for my writing. I have yeoman skills in that regard. I keep plugging along hoping that some day my space shuttle will launch but for now it just sits and simmers on the launch pad. Still, instead of being discouraged by the great work of others I find it inspiring...challenging might be a more operative word. When I see somebody here at writing.com create literature that is excellent ,I feel as good about it as I do when I occasionally write something and step back and say Wow! did I do that? Actually I can't take credit for some of my better work. It isn't that I'm "Poor Mouthing," or a false sense of humility, it's just a deep gut realization that good writing doesn't come from inside but rather is something I occasionally catch hold of. It's something that brushes by that a writer reaches out and grabs, trying to retain that elusive thread as they type or scribble madly. It's a hoot to do and I have fun with it, but to say that I conjure it up in this pea brain of mine is not what I intuitively believe is happening. I think I'm connecting to something outside myself that is much bigger than I can possibly imagine. But it can be hard work and as I get older, sometimes fatiguing. If begs the question of where does the energy (passion) to be creative comes from?

Now before I put those with the patience to indulge my scribbles, into coronary arrest, I want you to take tight hold of an object well secured to the floor. I have concluded that our creative energies emanate from our drive to procreate. There I said it....that's what I think and if some find it shocking and believe their talents come from another and more sanitary source I hope this revelation isn't too traumatic. Further I believe that the thread of creativity is exactly what the word implies. The same thing that motivates us to write,or paint or wonder at the universe is the same thing that motivates and drives us to make babies. I realize this is an explosive issue and that the whole notion of physical creativity is tied up in piles social baggage but that's where I believe it comes from. What all the implications are I'm still trying to sort out. Sometimes I feel like a hand held calculator in a sea of lap tops and I'm sure there are many out there who have carried this line of thinking further. So, when you write something that is particularly good, and a chord of emotion vibrates, or a tear comes to your eye, it's sort of like looking at your child. It's a part of you but its so much than that...I wish I could say it better but the whole concept gets my brain to vibrating and I know its time to go out and start turning the wrenches.