The entire article can be found here http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/51.01.YourHowl
Flaum references the story of the red wolf, which came very close to being extinct in the 1970's, there was about fourteen left. It mainly focuses on Mumon, the bravest and most adept of the pack, as he takes a journey of trials and tribulations in order to find his howl and lead the pack, who are all frightened and lost without a leader. After a journey of many miles and various lessons, Mumon is able to howl and returns to his pack as their leader at which point the rest of the pack regains their howling ability as well. The point Flaum was trying to make with this particular story is that we all have a “howl”, or a voice rather, that we have to tap into to be truly free in the world. He says that it will be hard, and we will have to go through many trying experiences to achieve it, some of which may even feel like death itself; this is the price you pay, though, in order to truly unlock yourself from the chains of this world.
Flaum references the story of the red wolf, which came very close to being extinct in the 1970's, there was about fourteen left. It mainly focuses on Mumon, the bravest and most adept of the pack, as he takes a journey of trials and tribulations in order to find his howl and lead the pack, who are all frightened and lost without a leader. After a journey of many miles and various lessons, Mumon is able to howl and returns to his pack as their leader at which point the rest of the pack regains their howling ability as well. The point Flaum was trying to make with this particular story is that we all have a “howl”, or a voice rather, that we have to tap into to be truly free in the world. He says that it will be hard, and we will have to go through many trying experiences to achieve it, some of which may even feel like death itself; this is the price you pay, though, in order to truly unlock yourself from the chains of this world.
Creativity
There are a lot of ways to express creativity in the world, especially today with all the various mediums to share your thoughts (Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) it seems like an endless fountain of new and interesting thoughts are flooding the world, however, this is not the case. Almost all of what is put out today is either based on something else, unoriginal, or worse, plagiarized. On the bright side, though, this does not mean that creativity is lost. Josh Billings (AKA Henry Wheeler Shaw), an American humorist and lecturer during the mid to late 19th century, once said, “About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.” This quote speaks volumes to me and lends a certain sense of comfort. Many people might read this quote on creativity and originality and think it's rather pessimistic but I feel it is quite the contrary. What Billings was trying to do, aside from be humorous, was to explain that everything is derivative of an earlier work, not that creativity is dead but just that it isn't merely limited to being original to also be considered creative. If we defined creativity on this notion then anyone who was the first to do something would be considered creative. For example, by this definition Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the rest of the Apollo 11 crew would be creative. Not to suggest that they are not but everyone knows that's not what we mean when we talk about creativity. Creativity would be the guys who came up with the idea, “What if we traveled to space?” and just because people had certainly come up with the idea before didn't mean that they were any less creative.
No matter how far back you go on a certain medium there was always something before it that you could say was the true “start” of the whole idea, that's comforting to a creative person, I think. It takes a lot of pressure off of being original and puts more focus on truly honing your gifts and talents. Not to mention, I think in this freedom from trying so hard to be “original” and so much thinking and the realization that someone out there has done it before is when true originality is able to happen. Another famous quote by Ray Bradbury, that really coincides with this quote, suggests that thinking is the enemy of creativity and I couldn't agree more with that statement. When you aren't so concerned with how people will receive your work, or how original it is and you truly just let your creativity flow, that is when originality happens. It's then that you realize that it doesn't matter if someone has already done what you've done, because they probably have, but it just matters that you're doing it. Everything that has been considered great or meaningful in our history has been based on something else.
Regardless of where you look: film, television, music, poetry, painting, books, it's all based on something else. This has allowed me to really get out of my head and be a happier, more creative person. So maybe next time you are getting all jammed up and suffering from a serious case of writer's block or painter's block or whatever, you'll consider this and not be so hard on yourself, and just let the ideas flow.
No comments:
Post a Comment