It’s a big word, for a big thing that happens. It’s a great wind rushing through me, carrying away the house, Toto, everything. It’s a well that floods, then dries up when I’m thirstiest. It’s a fickle god, but I have no choice but to worship.

It’s a big word that the dictionary definition hardly captures with descriptions like “having the ability or power to create“. Nevertheless, I like one of the dictionary.com definitions:

“the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”.

That definition means something. To me, it captures the most important features of creativity: to transcend, to make meaning, and to use imagination.

• Creativity is a large word, and a large concept, that does transcend everyday existence. It forces us to reach a little–or a lot–beyond ourselves, sometimes into unfamiliar territory.
• And what are we looking for? Meaning. Words can be strung together, photos can be taken, without meaning, but usually no one has looked at it just the right way, tweaked it a little here, no there, to let the meaning shine through.
• Imagination is the greatest gift of being human. To be able to look outside ourselves, and not only see the face of another person, another lifestyle, but to close our eyes and look out from the inside of someone else, is the power of imagination.

Just a few of my thoughts on what it means to be creative. I’m sure I’ll be exploring the subject again and again.

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