My creativity advent calendar 2024: Day 3.
The last couple of posts have caused some people to reflect that we get most creative when we either have to fight for survival or we have the luxury of enough peace and tranquillity to get away from everyday distractions and worries.
I’ve just had two reminders of where these two things can co-exist. The first is from Cairns my most looked forward to newsletter created by Joseph Denny-Braun. Joe brings his readers morsels of poetry, literature and art and I often find myself exploring ideas and concepts that I don’t come across anywhere else.
This edition, “We come to something without knowing why”, is about how abundance isn’t necessary in order for us to live, and live well. “Cold is necessary. Slow is okay. The body warms up while gathering wood for the fire.”
The second prompt is from Dame Evelyn Glennie, the world class solo percussionist who performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London 2012, leading a thousand drummers in the opening piece of music And I Will Kiss, and also playing the Glennie Concert Aluphone in Caliban’s Dream during the ceremony for lighting the Olympic cauldron.
Dame Evelyn’s message is this: “The overload of visual stimulus is so loud that it is thwarting our ability to listen.”
Dame Evelyn is deaf. Her mission is to teach the world to listen. Her message is very similar to Joe’s: abundance can be detrimental to our creativity.
Do we have to be struggling to survive in order to be really creative or does survival mean we lack abundance and therefore have the space to create?
