creative interpretations

and so i listen to Elizabeth Gilbert this morning giving a talk on TED.com...a link my mom sent me..she is talking about creative genius and how it all works....the funny thing is, here we all are, creative beings, struggling to explain our talents, our fears and our existence, and believing we are put here to do this work.   She believes that we are not a product of our own genius, but that of divine muse and fairies and thunderous trains of inspiration and I too feel that as part of this process...as I continue to work on my book, albeit sometimes much slower than i would like, I see the creative muse being tricky and coming in and out during times when we can't quite use them...inconvenient moments of flashed thoughts that occur right in the middle of something mundane and then they are gone...the pressure we put on ourselves to hold on tight to them and use them instead of allowing them to flow through us when we decide that they should.  This creative process of work and purpose.  As Elizabeth says, we have witnessed so many creative souls that are seemingly mad and suffering and dying to soon...that is the place we have somehow equated with great art....that is what i write about now and through my process.  I don't believe in the suffering and the despair of creativity.  I believe in the work, but not the idea that it should kill us and make us dark and withdrawn.  It should be celebrated and we should shout out with vibrant ferocity.  This is our place in the world.  We were born with bigger ears to hear notes, or strong eyes to see things others can't, or minds that hear words from the desert, and we must embrace them as an athlete embraces their height, size and skill.

we are athletes of the creative ranks and for all intesive purposes, our contracts should be in the millions and we should be traded and they should change the Super Bowl to the Super Show and we could all be in it every year.  This is our journey on a daily basis and it is sometimes a  hard one, but it should not be one that we struggle to live with.  it should be one that we strive to live with.

"The divine cockeyed genius assigned to your case...."  these are her words, but wow do they ring true.  If you think of your own creative gift as a character who was assigned to you, it makes sense...i see them as the Shakespearean clowns who grace the stage with a purpose that few recognize, but they are there to remind us what this is all about.  So here is to all of our "cockeyed geniuses"....let them play on your stage.

Love and Understanding.