Dinosaurs Part 2

After I started to learn about dinosaurs, I learned they're everywhere! They're everywhere! I started to hear about dinosaurs from all sorts of places like a travel magazine and a newspaper. I learned for instance, that there are many places in Texas where dinosaur fossils can be viewed either still in the ground or on display in a variety of venues.

Triceratops and me. I am on the right. Witte Museum

Now, here's the thing. Dinosaurs have been around for millions of years. Most dinosaur fossils are still a part of the surrounding rock. So they are not going anywhere anytime soon. Nothing about dinosaurs changed. Dinosaurs were not suddenly the latest fad, the latest news. What changed was my awareness of them. Why did this happen? Because I expanded my boundaries. I immersed myself in the study of dinosaurs for a few hours each day and in doing so I then was able to zero in on a photo or article that had anything to do with dinosaurs. It was an amazing experience. I allowed myself to see. 


What do you see? What do you want to see? If you allowed yourself to say a dream out loud, would your awareness of ways to live that dream unfold? I challenge you to try.    

Dinosaurs, Part 1

My apologies, Gentle Reader, for being so behind in my posts to you. I recently had the chance to immerse myself in the study of dinosaurs. Fascinating creatures, dinosaurs. The class was called "Introduction to Dinosaurs" and for me it was all new information. I have never even watched "Jurassic Park" from beginning to end. Some of the material covered was very technical like weight ratios and skeletal structures and I will admit that when I encountered formulas, my eyes gazed over and I just skimmed the information. At other times, when the discussion centered on topics like coprolites, gasthroliths or taphonomy, I was able to channel my inner ten year old boy and I never even knew I had an inner ten year old boy to channel. Don't know what coprolites, gasthroliths or taphonomy refers to? Well, suffice it to say, it has an EWWWW factor best appreciated by ten year old boys. 


As a creativity coach, one thing, in particular, stood out to me. Dinosaurs have two histories. The first occurred more than 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs lived, had families and died. The second history began about two hundred years ago when early paleontologists recognized that the bones and teeth in the soil represented animals that did not have contemporary counterparts. When they began to find whole skeletons and prepared them for display, they could not imagine anything so big holding a tail above the ground. In their minds, the tail must have dragged on the ground. So what did they do? They broke the caudal vertebrae or tail bone! They destroyed the evidence because it did not fit into their world view so therefore, it could not exist. They could not see what was literally before their eyes. I glad they weren't trying to understand flight or they may have killed  the bumblebees.  


So, what do you refuse to see? What is right before your eyes that you don't want to examine closely because it might challenge your little corner of the universe? Is there some creative risk that you don't think is possible but it lurks in your mind anyhow? Look at it closely. maybe you'll find a world new world for yourself.            

How creative people act

Late February, early March can be a dreary time of the year for many of us. Sometimes, it seems as if winter will never end. We’ve given up on the New Year’s resolutions we made so hopefully last month. We are confronted daily with information about a poor global economy, stories of governments in crisis and natural disasters worldwide. Here in the United States, as the elections approach, more and more, politicians are acting like unsupervised ten-year old boys. Not that I have any thing against ten-year old boys, mind you. Fortunately, scientists have pretty much debunked the idea that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in December. So if you were planning on buying something with deferred payments to 2013, thinking that you wouldn’t have to pay because the world would end, you may want to rethink that plan. Then again, the zombie apocalypse is imminent. It’s only a matter of time before the undead are among us. Gas masks may be in order since those fools are definitely going to stink. So, how do we deal with all this discouraging news and stay creative?

             We act. We recognize that some tension in our lives is a good thing. It forces us to grow, achieve more and appreciate what we have. Too much doom and gloom drains us of energy and is an enemy to our creative flow. It deadens our enthusiasm for our creative ventures. Do we accept the idea that all the pessimism is unavoidable and, after all, maybe we aren’t that creative anyhow? No. No. No. We order cheese with our whine and suck it up, the wine and our attitude. 

            We act. We become aware of what kinds of negative concepts affect us and we take control. More snow in the forecast? We buy flowers. Another newscast showing the decline of civilization? We use the information to write a best selling dystopian novel. Or we change the channel and go wash dishes. Another economic downturn? We diversify. We plant a Victory Garden. We donate to a food bank. We buy new shoes.

            We act. We recognize that we do not create in a vacuum. We create in a world with warts, weirdos, wackos and wonderful potential. We volunteer. We teach children. We serve on committees. We write letters. We mentor. We do not sit on our asses. We share our knowledge and gifts. We understand that our opportunities to create in whatever field exist because of all those that came before us. We acknowledge that if future generations are to enjoy the arts and sciences and the benefits from them, it is because of how we act today.

            Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! I’ve always been more afraid of the oh mys, myself. “Oh my, do you really want to use that word there? Oh my, you hit the wrong note again. Oh my. Do we creep softly then, hoping all the stuff and nonsense of our modern world will go away? No. We act. We use today’s events, both good and bad as inspiration for tomorrow’s creative compositions and innovations. We grasp the idea that there are problems in our world and will always be problems in our world, yet we expect the unexpected. In turn, we find joy, bliss in our ability to create in the midst of chaos.      


This article appeared as a shorter version called Expect the Unexpected in the Creativity Coaching Association's February newsletter. To read the original, click here.