Believing the Impossible

Sometimes I wonder whether we restrict ourselves unnecessarily by curtailing our imagination and beliefs. We might believe that humans are innately selfish, that synchronicity is impossible, or that we can't lose weight. Looking at the world as it seems right now, those beliefs could appear completely reasonable. But does this mean they are true? If you believe that you can't draw because you had a bad experience back in primary school, is this a true belief? I believed for a long time that I couldn't improvise, but this year I began taking improvisation lessons, and when I suspend my skepticism I find that it's really not as impossible as I had previously thought.

There are plenty of examples of individuals who have achieved things others had thought impossible - because they 'believed in themselves'. We don't even need to search very far to find people who have achieved goals they previously thought were impossible - because they changed their beliefs about themselves. But what if we could achieve things as a society that we never thought possible, like not killing each other in wars, for example? Would we ever be able to change our ideas about human nature to such an extent that we could achieve world peace?

"Don't be ridiculous!" "Humans have been fighting with each other since the dawn of time, why would we stop now?" I can already hear the incredulity in the air. OK, so humans have been killing each other for millennia - is that a good reason to assume that we cannot overcome that as a society? Just because something "has always been that way" is not a good reason to believe that it must be that way. What if we let ourselves believe, just for a second, that the world could be different? What if we opened the door to that possibility, just a little? What if a lot of people in the world did that? I'm not saying that we would have armies laying down their guns, but I think it is worth thinking about the possibility that things could be very different.

Brenda Coulter has written about suspending disbelief when reading fiction, and included a wonderful quote from Alice in Wonderland:

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

--Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.

What if we too practiced believing impossible things?

The Flat Parts of Life's Rollercoaster

I have been working through Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way and this morning I decided to flip back through my morning pages. I found this entry that I had written back in September last year. It is still something that I haven't been able to solve yet.

Saturday, 24 September 2005.

Sometimes I don't seem to know what is real and what is not. I spent a lot of today wishing for something else rather than being in the experience of today. I think that us humans tend to want all the good times - those times when we feel most alive and energised - without any of the ordinary times. Really, it's not the bad times - the real low lows - that are the worst for me; it is the blah ordinary times - the days with no highlights or lowlights, with no contrast, the days that are bathed in a murky grey, the days that seem to have no purpose to them. Those are the days when I only feel half alive, when I feel that I am going through the motions, but not actually being there at all. What makes these days like that? Are they predestined to be that way? Is it something in the way we wake up? Does it have something to do with our expectations for the day? I know that I feel lost if I don't have a clear purpose, but I also know that I need to take time out. How do I do that without it going bad?

Bigger things than humans

Yesterday, as my plane taxied into Sydney Airport, I was struck by how small humans are compared to some of the things we have created. Everything in the airport fits together - the planes, the runways, the terminal building - and then there are these bizarre-looking little figures running around in the midst of it all. They looked incongruous, out of place, and incredibly fragile compared to the huge world of architecture and machinery. Will we one day construct a structure that is so huge and complicated that we will lose control of it? Some would say that we already have. The stockmarket is one example that springs to mind. It was conceived and created by humans, but does anyone really understand how it works? No one can control it with any certainty, and it has the power to cause great human suffering in the form of recessions and depressions. Will the monster break out of control one day?

The best punctuation mark

Question marks are my favourite punctuation just now. They are so curly and floaty like a balloon that is about to fly away, but is just hanging there for an instant. They are full of possibilities - who knows where they could travel to? They could even have different colours, like balloons. Red ones? Blue ones? Maybe even green ones?

Crayon Creativity

I just came across a post on TinkerX about a brilliant game the author plays with his 6-year-old son while waiting for their orders at restaurants. It is so simple, yet such a great way to get those creative juices flowing. I think, as adults, we often try to be too complicated about these things - we can learn a lot from watching kids!

What is creativity?

Hmmm, what is creativity? That is a huge question, and not one that I could answer in just one blog post, even if I knew the answer. I'm not really sure that anyone can know the answer to that question in its entirety. In fact, there may well be no answer to that question, or not one that is true for everyone. What I can do, though, is start to question what creativity means to me. This is a topic that I think I will come back to again and again in future posts, but today, I think I would like to share one little anecdote with you.

It was my friend's birthday, a couple of years back. I had bought her a present and wrapped it nicely, but had forgotten to get a card to go with it. I really wanted to write her a birthday card, as well as give the gift, but I had no gift cards in the house, and I had no time to go to the shops. I hunted around in my desk, and found some black paper. Buried a bit deeper was a silver pen. I had the bare bones of a card, but what to put on the front? My drawing skills aren't that great, so I didn't want to draw a picture on the front. I needed something else. I wandered out into the living room, and saw the plants in the backyard. Suddenly, I knew what I could do. I grabbed a pair of scissors, went outside, and snipped a piece off one of the bushes in the garden. A dab of glue, and the card was complete.

My friend loved the card. "Oh, it's so creative!" she said, "I would never have thought of that." She was really impressed with my supposed creative talents, and almost had a tinge of envy in her voice.

Now, I don't think I am especially different from anyone else. I don't have some kind of creative gene that other people lack. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, or show off. Obviously I wanted the card to look good, but it was as a gesture of friendship and giving. I acted almost out of desperation - I was looking for something, anything that I could make some sort of card out of. I had no fixed idea in mind. Who was it said that necessity is the mother of invention? Well, it seemed that it was the mother of creativity in this case. Which, when you think about it, is really almost the same thing as invention.

I believe that creativity is not something that is innate in some people, while others miss out. It is less a "talent" and more an outlook on life, a way of seeing the world as full of interesting possibilities. It is about cultivating an open mind and an inquiring intellect, the courage to try new things, and the humility to not be defined by them. It is something that gets stronger with practice, and will dwindle if neglected.

First post

Welcome to JourneyMuse! The aim I have for this blog is to explore ideas and questions and musings about creativity, music and life. This will be a journey of discovery. I am not sure where it will lead, but I am excited about finding out. Let's jump on board!