Creativity...

As I have felt disconnected with my own creativity for the last month, I started thinking on it. What is it? Why am I struggling to get 'at it'? I stumbled across a definition I really like :

"We are born as artists. You, at this moment, have this creative force churning within you. You know it as an urge. Your challenge is always the same: it is to risk being you" (Jerry Fresia)

I really like this as I frequently feel my creative endeavours, whatever they might be, are substandard or really not exhibiting the talent as compared to others. When you look up creativity, you realize it is not about being an 'artist' but about having a diferent mindset and approach to things. In that sense, I **am** creative. Being a 'solution finder' is what I do best. Give me a problem, a challenge, a mountain and i will find you possible solutions, people to assist in endeavor, or a possible route for the trek. It is this creative challenge I revel in and lust for. When I am around people who dream big, think bigger and see the whole picture, not just a frame... I feel alive.

Perhaps I need to find more of these kindred spirits. Since my committment to positivity I have ixnayed the negative forces (people included) out of my life where I can. Anyone know how to create a magnetic force for creative types? I guess that is why I love learning and school. Being energized by those around you who share a passion or committment. Diverse people, styles and knowledge.... all there for you to learn from.

I am thinking it is life that has a tendency to suck the creativity out with the demands of the day-to-day. Ms. KLC needs to carve a better space for that creativity to come out. Always it seems that other things trump it.... SOOOOO

1. Guess I am going to have to PLAN for the creativity space like I do working out
2. Commit to a project
3. Stop feeling less than successful by comparing my attempts to others

I hereby announce my intentions.....

Do the Ends Justify the Means?

This is the question that struck me as being the overwhelming question hidden within the Shakespearean play "Julius Caesar" which I saw on Sunday. Noble intent may exist, but even purest intent can wreck havoc. Brutus was a man of ideals, of pure heart and unsoiled reputation. Yet, he was convinced to stand forward and make a political move that was swift and harsh. Those who pressed him forward were less than pure of heart and mind. Brutus loved Caesar, but loved the higher ideal more. A noble intent, yet the result of his noblest of intents was civil war within a country, the death of fellow senators (i.e. Cicero) and the suicide of his brother Cassius. Truly, did the ends justify the means? Can we only decide this in retrospect when we have the space and time necessary to be objective?

Does using dirty campaign money become okay if in the end you as a politician, put forward policies which bring the common good to the forefront?

Would cutting off a thief's hands be justified by their inability to steal any further?

Or more difficult, are the telling of white lies or lies of omission justified by the avoidance of pain/upset given to others?

As you begin to see, there is not an absolute. Initially my response was that the ends cannot justify the means, and yet I omit things that are hurtful from conversation all the time. Ethics are far from simple, the same for politics. Thanks to Shakespeare for creatively making us think on them.

Can't always get what you want

.... that is today's thought and song that popped to mind. Funny. It is appropriate. There are a few things I want really really badly right now. None of which are material. Am I weird because I don't really lust for the material but long for things intangible?

Keep reminding myself there is a bigger plan, even if I cannot see it right now. Live the now, feel the feelings, celebrate the now, trust that the path will be more evident as I travel along it... I hope.