Magic

Real satisfaction came when inspiration and effort magically took flight.
Maryanne O'Hara--Cascade.


Think back to the last time you took that magical flight Ms. O'Hara describes...was it at work? At play? Or, at that marvelous junction where work and play and inspiration and the Holy Spirit all join hands in a synergistic symphony of joy?

Sadly, my experience with "work" is that magic rarely occurs in the presence of plodding daily details, especially when overseen by administrators whose concept of creativity involves ensuring that we stay inside the lines when coloring. Perhaps that's why true creativity, business breakthroughs, iconoclastic outbreaks mostly take place in small businesses, in entrepreneurial climates, in "skunk works" (labs that are not necessarily operating within the bosses' rules), and in basements or garages.

Happily, my experience as a writer does sometimes achieve this delightful creative storm...in fact, as I prepared my sermon on Psalm 121 (preached 1/27/13 @ Faith Presbyt Ch)...I almost felt guilty, the study, writing, and preaching just flowed like water downhill! All kudos to the Source of all inspiration, might I add...okay, I must add!

Sometimes, writing has this magical flow...such as my book of children's Christmas stories (THE ANIMALS OF CHRISTMAS)--these stories just came to life with vigor and humor and charm. Other times, it isn't bad once I get started, but getting started--WHEW! I feel like I'm battling my way through a million cobwebs: individually, nuthin; collectively, feels almost impossible to get a move on. But, with perseverance, the cobwebs yield and then I'm off and running. How true of so much of life, it's the getting off the start-line that's the absolute toughest part. And, how true and often that a mere cobweb of a hindrance keeps me from starting any project, simple or complex!

Howzabout your experience? Had a "wow" lately when things just fell together, and you stood back, amazed and pleased and proud? Fought (or are fighting) huge cobwebs?

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

   We don't stop playing because we grow old;
           we grow old because we stop playing.


What's the diff twixt work and play? Is it a vast gulf? Are there times when it's only a wide ditch that a bold leap might span? Might the issue be that it's our attitude that needs an adjustment so that work and play have greater overlap?

Writing has to be filed under the "work" heading: if one is going to construct good sentences that weave together into cogent ppghs that synergize to create a great story--you betcha it's work!

BUT...a playful attitude helps a lot--why be perfectionistic with the first draft? I just play with words, both for meaning and for sound (alliteration, assonance, consonsance) and for the flow of the sound and the meaning. Editing time--there's where the perfectionism comes to the forefront...with icy gaze, pretty phrases that are cluttering up the tidy and simple meaning need to be axed.
     "But, it was witty and pretty and..." sez Smitti.
     "Ix-nay, it was too much icing and not enuff cake!" says the editor. "Much too often, books and periodicals are not adequately edited...and I mean for more than just spelling and grammar! There's too much language when 'just the facts' would have been better. Other sentences just go 'thud,' forcing the reader to reread the prior sentence or the prior ppgh--when that happens, unless the reader is young or distractable, I put the blame on the writer! K.I.S.S. is still a fundamental and simple truth!" the editor said, shaking his head and disappearing into his lair with a parting growl.

If dogs and cats and bear cubs and otters play, and human kids play...seems to me it just might have something to do with the imago dei...or is that just a crazed thought? [Your thoughts welcomed...there's a spot below for comments--that's sorta the idea of a blog--that we converse!]

Is play always frivolous? Look at the industrious approach taken by a child who's building (or breaking!) something orfiguring out a game or device...the kid is focused, delighted, and isn't happy to be interrupted!

I think that play is something either programmed or needed by all of us. Sure, there are time to be plodding and focused and not-very-playful with detailed, finicky undertakings...but life is too short to not try to add a measure of fun to every task. I think Mary Poppins had it right, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go do-own..."

Hmmm?

---------

Okay, I've had a few mnths to digest this blog post...so, ten months later, here's my response:

--Drawing on my own experiences, when I am "at work," I may be productive, but the productivity is rote and necessary. Creativity and fun are not part of most people's "work vocabulary."
--When I don't approach writing as play--I end up writing very little.
--When I do approach writing as work--I'd better be in editor-mode.
--I haven't produced much creativity lately...perhaps 'cuz I'm focused on marketing my last book.
--Time to go play at my writing--see ya later.

Creativity 3

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. The simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.
--Charles Mingus, jazz musician/composer/conductor.


Creativity.

I believe we all have it.

For some, it is like their shoe size: wide and long.

For some, it is like their arm span: wide-reaching.

For others, it is like their heart: deeply hidden yet full of delight... if someone would only care to tap into that wellspring of life.

For all of us, creativity is like garden soil that offers a productive medium... when cultivated and watered and fertilized and spoken to lovingly! Cultivating yours? Talking nicely to yourself...and to others?

Some folks believe that creativity must be weird (as Charles Mingus rants, above.) Certainly James Joyce, whose seminal work, ULYSSES, which has been deemed unreadable by many critics, epitomizes that. Here's a quote from that work:

“Her antiquity in preceding and surviving succeeding tellurian generations: her nocturnal predominance: her satellitic dependence: her luminary reflection: her constancy under all her phases, rising and setting by her appointed times, waxing and waning: the forced invariability of her aspect: her indeterminate response to inaffirmative interrogation: her potency over effluent and refluent waters: her power to enamour, to mortify, to invest with beauty, to render insane, to incite to and aid delinquency: the tranquil inscrutability of her visage: the terribility of her isolated dominant resplendent propinquity: her omens of tempest and of calm: the stimulation of her light, her motion and her presence: the admonition of her craters, her arid seas, her silence: her splendour, when visible: her attraction, when invisible.” 

Can you figger what James Joyce is talking about? Or, has he driven you loony? Let me know what you think.

Pride and Prejudice

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.
                                                                                    --Lewis Carroll.


   I am proudly celebrating the above quote: I just finished editing my latest book.
  
   Sadly, the English language doesn't distinguish pride, the sinful attitude, from pride, the pleasure of doing a job well and knowing that you applied your divinely-granted skills aptly.

   Oh, the prejudice comes in about now: just like the proud grandparent, "Of course my grandkids are the smartest, kindest, and most handsome!" Likewise, the product of one's writing is seen with positive bias--that's why editors and discerning early readers are so deeply appreciated for their (honest!) feedback...if it's boring, I'll have a hard time telling, cuz it's my little baby and I just know that he's one superlative little feller!

   Now, the book has been flying off the shelves at national bookstores--well, okay, it hasn't actually been on the shelves, since I'm publishing it myself. That said, here's a sample, and it'll be on sale for $15 dollah, shipping included:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TL0SUJDBKmR2p-lqaimC7bpBaqUvM5rrntdzSae0PhM/edit

   Remember, feedback is the true breakfast of champions...and I crave your input. Thnx!

Creativity, revisited

Creativity, revisited.

"...God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist." Rom. 4: 17.

**********

     To call something new into being is to imitate our Heavenly Father. Tonight, I am printing the first copies of my latest book: PROVERBS--Journeying to the Heart of God's Wisdom.
     I've been reading through the book of Proverbs several times a year for many years now. After reading that Billy Graham read a chapter a day of both Psalms and Proverbs, I thought that an excellent idea to emulate.
     While I have learned things both personally and regarding my business pursuits, Proverbs has so much in it that I have drafted a novel about the personification of wisdom.
     However, I decided to call into being a new work this year, based on Solomon's usage of the word "heart." Solomon uses this word, leb, some 94 times according to one source. The only other Old Testament writer to exceed Solomon's usage was his father, in the 150 chapters of the Psalms!

     In writing this book, I've learned a lot, and hope that my readers may derive fruit from my own pursuit of wisdom! May my puny efforts at creativity bring glory to our great Creator!


Link to sample:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TL0SUJDBKmR2p-lqaimC7bpBaqUvM5rrntdzSae0PhM/edit