Are You Creative?

Are You? Let me hear that answer.

In my beliefs YOU ARE BORN CREATIVE.

The big challenge is to stay that way in the face of all conditioning one has to face growing up. It begins when parents state upon seeing the little artwork of a 3 year old, “but that doesn’t look like….” (put in the right word for the concept that your little artist conveyed in his artwork). And kids learn fast. They learn that things look like as their parents (later as their teachers) see them and not as they see them through their eyes or in their own imagination. They began to see through the eyes of those who came before them. The sad reality is: they will need to explore new paths where nobody has touched his feet upon before them. But we prepare them for history, for yesterday that never comes back as we all so well know.

As parents of course we try and try to give our kids the right opportunities to develop themselves and get ready for life. We take them to countless practices, sport, dance if the are lucky. We push them to learn languages. We take them to museums on the weekends. Boy, it is hard work to be a parent nowadays.

But…

Do we let them play football as they want? No, there are the rules already established how that supposed to happen.

 Do we let them dance the dance that is inside them?  No, there is already a good way how to dance ballet and do an Arabesque.

Do we let them get creative with language? Of course not, we don’t understand the half of what the youngsters say nowadays anyway, we need to protect our own kid from doom.

Do we let them to touch and play with the things exhibited in museums? God forbid… security will be after us.

All good intentions on the surface.

Attention, tricky question ahead: aren’t we grown-ups show our fear of the creative genius of our offspring in pushing them into cages built by our society’s past experience and our own fear of looking outside of our windows? Do we let our already limited reality to limit the new generations’ willingness to open those closed windows and doors for a peek outside?

 Are you afraid?

Just open up for an inch. Next time your kids say: “that is the Sun” on their picture, stop yourself saying,” no, honey, the Sun doesn’t look like that at all”. You might not live to the day that the Sun will look exactly like that, but your kid might. And he will need all the creative abilities you try to rob him in order to survive. And survive should he, right?

Tags: art, creative abilities, creative process, creativity