- Response to "Welcome to My Bloutcher(TM)."
- Pizza, Dead Bodies and the Creativity of Limitations
- Announcements
- From my sketchbook: Self Portrait Done from Car Mirror While Waiting (Again) for Karen
Thanks for all your wonderful feedback on the maiden voyage of my bloutcher. It seems to have hit a cord. And has raised a few very serious questions.
Jeff Weinberger wants to know: "Is the act which defines writing a bloutcher bloutching? Can we conjugate a new verb 'to bloutch?' Can I kvetch when I bloutch?"
Howard Stone has inquired: "Is bloutcher now an official scrabble word?"
These are serious questions which I need to ponder. As always, your thoughts are welcome.
How Bloutcher?
BLogjOUrnalskeTCHbooknewslettER = Bloutcher. Rhymes with Voucher.
Pizza, Dead Bodies and the Creativity of Limitations
A good friend of mine, Frances Caravana, recently sent me the following story.
An old Italian lived alone in New Jersey. He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult to work, as the ground was hard. His son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:
Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son. Dear Pop, Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried. Love Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son. Dear Pop Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love Vinnie
Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love Papa
A few days later he received a letter from his son. Dear Pop, Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried. Love Vinnie
At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son. Dear Pop Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances. Love Vinnie
This story reminded me of what the late great Gene Cohen called "practical creativity." Cohen provides another illustration in his book The Mature Mind.
His in-laws, both in their seventies, found themselves emerging from a Washington, DC subway into a raging snowstorm. Since it was rush hour there were no cabs to take them to their dinner host's home. Gene's father-in-law noticed the steamy window of a pizza shop across the street so the couple trudged through the slush, stepped to the counter and ordered a large pizza for delivery.
When it came time to pay he said, "Oh, there's one more thing."
"What's that?" asked the puzzled cashier.
"We want you to deliver us with the pizza."
Now that was brilliant. And the pizza cost less than the cab ride--even with the tip!!
These two stories got me thinking. We often assume that creativity thrives when it does not have any constraints imposed on it. Where our creative instincts are freed from limitations and allowed to soar unfettered in whatever direction they choose. The reality may be quite different, however. Creativity may derive from just the opposite. Try this. Creativity sprouts when it is faced with limitations, sometimes severe limitations. Limitation, not freedom, is its birthplace. It is the very nature of creativity to be born out of the tension between perceived and real constraints and the need for new possiblities. Vinnie, of course, had severe limitations.
In fact, the jail bars are a kind of metaphor for the way we are all imprisoned in some form or another by ours assumptions. The presence of the prison walls created a basic tension and inspired an entirely new approach. Vinnie turned his imprisonment into an asset. He knew the feds would bite because he knew what their assumptions were. So, unable to physically help his father, he ingeniously converted your everyday U.S. Postal Service into a co-conspirator. And bite they did!
And what about Gene Cohen's in-laws? They were surrounded by limitations. The inhospitable weather. The absence of taxi-cabs. It was the very severity of these limitations that led them to such an inventive (and cost effective) solution.
So what can we glean from Vinnie and the in-laws? What are the critical elements that make creativity work when confronted by limitations?
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Announcements:
Join me on August 10th at the Brookline Booksmith for an Author's Talk and Book signing for Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life. Starts at 7 pm.
And if you are in the Denver area be sure to show up for my co-author, Kathy Jordan's, talk at the Tattered Cover Book Store, Highlands Ranch Location, August 12, 7:30 pm.
Note your calendars for September 13th at the Newton Free Library where Discovering What's Next is sponsoring an author's talk and book signing, beginning at 7 pm. Try to get there a few minutes early because I will have a special guest handing out some yummies. Clue: A Real Life Life Change Artist.
From my sketchbook:
I carry my sketchbook wherever I go. For one thing, I often find myself waiting for my wife Karen. If you know her you understand. On this particular wait I sketched myself staring into the car mirror. I could also have read a book which I often do but in this one moment the goofy expression on my face seemed to capture the existential recognition of hopeless surrender. I also ended up reading a book.
To write a comment click here.
Then scroll down to comments link.
Finally, please consider Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life as an interesting read for any BOOK CLUBS you are part of.
His in-laws, both in their seventies, found themselves emerging from a Washington, DC subway into a raging snowstorm. Since it was rush hour there were no cabs to take them to their dinner host's home. Gene's father-in-law noticed the steamy window of a pizza shop across the street so the couple trudged through the slush, stepped to the counter and ordered a large pizza for delivery.
When it came time to pay he said, "Oh, there's one more thing.""What's that?" asked the puzzled cashier.
"We want you to deliver us with the pizza."
Now that was brilliant. And the pizza cost less than the cab ride--even with the tip!!
These two stories got me thinking. We often assume that creativity thrives when it does not have any constraints imposed on it. Where our creative instincts are freed from limitations and allowed to soar unfettered in whatever direction they choose. The reality may be quite different, however. Creativity may derive from just the opposite. Try this. Creativity sprouts when it is faced with limitations, sometimes severe limitations. Limitation, not freedom, is its birthplace. It is the very nature of creativity to be born out of the tension between perceived and real constraints and the need for new possiblities. Vinnie, of course, had severe limitations.
In fact, the jail bars are a kind of metaphor for the way we are all imprisoned in some form or another by ours assumptions. The presence of the prison walls created a basic tension and inspired an entirely new approach. Vinnie turned his imprisonment into an asset. He knew the feds would bite because he knew what their assumptions were. So, unable to physically help his father, he ingeniously converted your everyday U.S. Postal Service into a co-conspirator. And bite they did!And what about Gene Cohen's in-laws? They were surrounded by limitations. The inhospitable weather. The absence of taxi-cabs. It was the very severity of these limitations that led them to such an inventive (and cost effective) solution.
So what can we glean from Vinnie and the in-laws? What are the critical elements that make creativity work when confronted by limitations?
- Define the challenge--a clear understanding of the limitations one faces
- Adopt a Possibilities Orientation--Using the limitations as an inspiration for creativity not an impendiment to it
- Suspend Beliefs--Allowing data to come rather than judging it
- Freshen Your Eyes--Leveraging what is commonplace in the environment in new, different ways
- Play--Make it into a game
To Write a Comment Click Here.
Then scroll down to the comments link.
Announcements:
Join me on August 10th at the Brookline Booksmith for an Author's Talk and Book signing for Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life. Starts at 7 pm.
And if you are in the Denver area be sure to show up for my co-author, Kathy Jordan's, talk at the Tattered Cover Book Store, Highlands Ranch Location, August 12, 7:30 pm.
Note your calendars for September 13th at the Newton Free Library where Discovering What's Next is sponsoring an author's talk and book signing, beginning at 7 pm. Try to get there a few minutes early because I will have a special guest handing out some yummies. Clue: A Real Life Life Change Artist.
From my sketchbook:
I carry my sketchbook wherever I go. For one thing, I often find myself waiting for my wife Karen. If you know her you understand. On this particular wait I sketched myself staring into the car mirror. I could also have read a book which I often do but in this one moment the goofy expression on my face seemed to capture the existential recognition of hopeless surrender. I also ended up reading a book.To write a comment click here.
Then scroll down to comments link.
Finally, please consider Becoming a Life Change Artist; 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage of Life as an interesting read for any BOOK CLUBS you are part of.
