Bring in the creatives!
It was an amusing moment for those of us who had been working in the not-for-profit environment.
We had reached a decision about how to approach a brochure project, and a member of the team who had just joined us from the commercial sector said, "Great, let's bring in the Creatives." To him, it was time to pass the project to people who would take our concept and turn it into a designed product. The rest of us laughed because in our not-for-profit universe, the members of our little team were also "the Creatives"!
I was thinking about this in relation to the recent decision to send a surge of US troops to Iraq. I found myself recalling that one team member's comment: "Bring in the Creatives!" It occurred to me that there was a way to see the additional military personnel in just that way, which was a refreshing viewpoint to me, because I feel that an influx of creativity can make a difference in any challenging situation.
What do I mean by relating creativity to military personnel? Some years ago I'd thought of creativity as pretty much confined to people who call themselves artists or thinkers. I had seen myself as a creative person in my teens and early 20s, and had suffered from the presumption that others were not creative. They were business people or politicians or homemakers, etc. As I discovered a spiritual walk – Christian Science in my case – I became aware that my attitude was a sense of superiority because of my cherished creativity.
It dawned on me that some of the opinions I was harboring were a sort of mirror image of the kind of snobbishness I disliked in people who I felt were arrogantly proud of having more money than others.
What changed me was simply reading the pages of this newspaper. I was fascinated by some of the stories about business people and the motivation – and, yes, creativity – behind their businesses. A similar thing happened with some of the politicians/leaders featured around the world, with scientists, and with some homemakers. Soon I was seeing creativity everywhere, including, but not limited to, the creative crowd of artists, writers, and musicians.
Through expanding my appreciation of how creativity can pop up everywhere, I took a step back and recognized that creativity is indeed always at hand, because it is an aspect of the nature of divine Soul, God. And it is an aspect of Soul's spiritual idea, man – which means the true nature of every man and woman. No one can lack it.
In effect, I recognized that creativity is a universally available quality of being, as is pointed out in a description of creativity and how to nurture it, that I found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy: "Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent" (p. 89).
Everyone, through prayer, can silence the material senses that take a limited view of intelligence, and perceive divine Spirit, God, and its infinite inspiration. So this universal potential for creativity includes all those living in Iraq, the foreign troops serving there, and leaders within and without who are seeking ways to bring stability to Iraq. It also includes concerned observers, like me, who can pray to affirm the powerlessness of the dull, human mind to prevent the creative solutions of the divine Mind, God, from emerging, and being implemented.
Let's bring in the creatives. Indeed, let's know that we can silence the material senses, listen to divine Spirit for its inspiration, and welcome in the inspired ideas of God that can help lead to peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
Wisdom and knowledge shall
be the stability of thy times.
Isaiah 33:6
