Create, Create, Create

What if we saw ourselves as 'creators' rather than 'consumers'? How different would our world be if we freely indulged our innate creative desires, and unleashed our curiosity and intelligence in the process?

When we were rebranded from citizens to consumers we may have thought that it was only a matter of labels. But sticks, stones, and words can break your bones, or change your perceptions of the way the world operates.

Accepting and adopting the label of 'consumers' causes us to see ourselves as passive, empty, needing to be filled by absorbing someone else's ideas, products and expectations, for a price. We take on the roll of a void, a vessel, a black hole or vacuum needing to be filled endlessly with stuff produced by others.

This cheapens our experience. It dulls us down and stifles our evolution. Creativity is in us and needs to come out. We are all agents of creativity, mirroring the creative impulse of the universe. Inside each of us is unlimited potential for manifesting our own unique skills and abilities.

If we were freed from the toil of endless consumption, and the jobs we need to work in order to fund our filling, what would we do? Would we come up with new ideas and scientific theories? Given the time to express our inner artist might we not create wonderful musical compositions, visual arts, and dances?

Some of us would think up new jokes, while others would labour lovingly on writing projects, discoveries and inventions. Freed from living to work, we would settle nicely into working to live. Our work would support our creativity, and our creativity would support our work.

People would find that active problem solving and innovating are our natural evolutionary tendencies, and each of us would be engaged in creating something original and worthwhile to share with the human family.

We are entering a time when we desperately need less passive consuming and more active creating. It is the only thing that will save us, and it will be a worthwhile and challenging endeavour. And it will be fun.

So get out there and create, create, create. Share what you make. Encourage others to do the same. I think we will all be amazed at the results.

“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.” 

- Kurt Vonnegut

Note: the photographs in this post were taken today while I was on a bike ride. They are images of a reflecting pool - I flipped the shots upside down for a surreal effect.