NO matter what you believe about how we came to be on this earth – Big Bang or Adam and Eve – we can all generally accept that we are here right now.
I say generally because I may be dealing with some Matrix or Inception fans, and I don’t really want to get into that whole argument right now. (Even though I have some theories on those concepts as well…)
The human being is a complex organism. I can’t speak scientifically due to my lack of knowledge and study of biology, but if you look purely at emotion, it is already pretty complicated.
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but despite the vast number of bones in our body, there is no such one that is labelled as a ‘creative bone’ (complete lack of judgement by whoever went about naming these bones, considering that the ‘funny bone’ made it in and all)
Despite its lack of placement in the curriculum, I do believe that we all do have a creative bone inside us. Some people may be entirely dominated by this creativity, where as others barely have an ounce of it in their pinky finger. Whatever the case, it’s there.
Now here I go again making comments on things that I am not fully educated on; this time it’s sport. Hopefully I am right to say that the more you practice, the better you get.
Or, it might be more fitting to say, in this context at least, that the more you exercise certain muscles, the stronger they become.
So I think that people need to give their creative bone an ol’ stretch and expand their minds to the possibility that creativity and creative activity is just as important as any sporting or academic activity.
I know that it is an age old idea, but I don’t think that there has ever been a balance between them all.
I think in some ways, being creative is one of the most important. That may be a completely biased statement considering that my total lack of hand-eye coordination, fear of the ball and general disinterest, kept me out of all sporting activity and my poor ability to work with fractions didn’t help much with the academia side of things.
But, I still think that there is some truth in it.
As humans, with all that emotional complexity that I mentioned earlier, we need to find some way to express it all.
I somehow feel that you may have a hard time conveying it through a maths equation, so I think creative expression is the simplest solution.
Even though it works for some, it doesn’t necessarily mean grabbing the nearest sketch pad. There are a million ways to pursue creative expression.
Whether it be with writing, photography, film, music, acting, dancing… The list goes on. These are all ways to express yourself, and in many ways, it is just as beneficial as running around the block.
I’m not sure how long it will take for teachers and principals and government officials to realise this, but I can only hope that one day, being creative will be just as respected as being sporty or academic.
But, in the meantime, I think everyone should try and pursue some creativity in their lives.
For now, I am going to focus on getting ‘creative bone’ added to our list of phrases in biology. Maybe it will be one I actually remember …