Creativity

Recently, we had an "Art Day" with some dear friends on a day off from school.  These photos, snapped with a very old package of SX70 Polaroid film, remind me about how passionate I am about creativity.  I think creativity is the very lifeblood of an individual and, I think, the very essence of who we are.  I don't think I can exist without a creative outlet in my life and it took me too long to realize it.  I need to write daily.  I need to paint, take picture, sew, knit and craft.  I feel incomplete and irritable without the self expression, but it took me nearly 37 years to realize this about myself and to acknowledge that I have a voice worth hearing. 

I think children possess a natural creative inclination.  From the time they are toddlers, they create.  They create new words, new toys, new ideas and ways of doing things, not to mention new ways of doing art.  My daughters are the most creatively talented people I know.  Unfortunately, I worry every day that this creativity is going to be "beaten out of them."  Our society pushes perfection.  Their school rewards the "correct" answer, not the most insightful, inquisitive, creative answer.  As they get older, they are pushed to spend their time studying, playing soccer, or "achieving" in some fashion.  Art for the sake of art seems a waste of time and certainly isn't encouraged.  As they are older, their homemade gifts are received with less enthusiasm, which teaches them that money for store-bought gifts is better.  Their creative writing is stifled as it is viewed with a critical eye for correct spelling and punctuation and not for the ideas and insights.

I'm making my girls a promise right now.  I will always be more thrilled with a homemade gift than with a store-bought one.  I will never read a creative story with an eye for grammar and spelling.  I will never think that creative expression is a waste of time.  I will always make room for Art Day.  And I will hope that they carry on the tradition forever.