The Human Condition of Creating

One of the most endearing qualities we humans possess (to this speck of dust at least) is our passion and ability to create.  We are an amazing creature to be able to create the way we do.  We use our imagination in infinite ways to bring a new picture, or story, or gadget to realization.  But it’s not just the ways that we invent new things that make us creative – think of the way we create our ‘nests,’ by which I mean our homes.   We pay attention to every detail.  Not only do we want a specific color of curtain, it must also be the right texture. We paint trees and paw prints on the walls of our children’s rooms, with matching comforters and light switches.   Some of us even make sure the color of our Kitchenaid matches our kitchen theme.  While we’re on the subject of kitchens, there’s no greater place we love to create:  mixing new spices with traditional recipes to produce an original dish, making cupcakes in distinct flavors and colorful frostings, or adding a surprise ingredient to a tried and true soup.  One of my favorite observations about cooking is the intimacy inherent in this form of creating.  All that chopping and stirring and tending and measuring is done with care as we infuse our love with each twist of the spoon.  We don’t limit ourselves to creating in just the home however. There are the Steve Jobs of the world, the Richard Branson types who carry us forward, like da Vinci did during the renaissance.  These creators stand on the edge of everything we know and then have the tenacity (and audacity) to take us further.  Same goes for those daring astronomers and physicists who spend their dream time creating new ways for us to interpret our universe.  There are the designers who weave and sew in order that we may create a way of dressing that expresses who we are.  We owe our cultural fabric to singers and writers and painters and sculptors who somehow manage to capture a bit of the Universe for us with each stroke of the hand or movement of a note.  We owe our knowledge to those who have ever stood in front a classroom, creating an environment to challenge our minds and dig to the depths of reason.  Everywhere we look, we can observe ourselves creating in some form or another.  It is a beautiful sight to behold.

If we consider the thought a little deeper, we come to the conclusion that we can’t help but be creators.   We are born of creation itself, it is therefore in our very fiber to be creative – the old ‘acorn doesn’t fall far from the oak tree’ adage applies to us here.  If we dig deeper we can see a dynamic between the creator and the created, intimate and beautiful, a result of the fact that we are co-creating, working in tandem with the very universe that put us here.  Imagine – we are working side by side with Nature when we are creating.  Nothing is more terrible.  Nothing is more sacred.  There could be no greater act of worship.

So the next time you cook your family’s favorite meal, or dream up a new math formula, or pluck the next guitar string, or figure out a way to communicate with your sixteen year old for a minute – remember that you are creating, working with the universe, just as we were born to do.  Is there nothing more fulfilling in life?

Be Well…

Frankie