Hippies, hipsters, boho and bourgeoisie. How to be creative in times of ambiguity.
When I conjure images of the creative person, I see a free if disheveled spirit, surrounded by the chaos of creation; sodden rounds of clay, easels and brushes, and the ever present sign of busyness and creativity; a messy desk. My vision of creativity is something that arises out of a state of chaos and flux. In reality, however, creativity flows when the state of affairs is solid, predictable, and routine. Richard Florida, in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class, notes that the hippies of the 60’s have reinvented themselves as the hipsters and inspired artists we see today. They aren’t part of the blue collar or the white collar workers. Actually, they have no collar at all; more like a hemp shirt and merino wool socks.
Creativity comes in many forms, people who like to work in groups, the distracted artist, those with big radical ideas, others who tinker and improve on pieces of daily life. Some prefer the security of a large organizations, some like to work in solitude and some better with informal groups. What they all have in common is the need for an environment that will allow them to be creative, to value input and to challenge them. Creative talent is attracted to diversity in communities that welcomes creativity and innovation.
We know that great thinkers, artists and entrepreneurs rarely come out of nowhere. They cluster and thrive in places that attract other creative people and provide an environment that fosters and supports the creative effort. Creative people need creative cities. Think of all the great Italian artists. And the world needs creative people, perhaps now more than ever.
Cut to today when we are funneling ourselves through the hurricane, trying to batten down the hatches while looking for relief in the storm. In the last six months, our collective lives have taken a sharp veer to the left. Everything we knew to be true came to a sudden and halting stop. We rallied, horded t.p, shopped on line, overnight reinvented ourselves into remote learners and teachers, all the while changing the conversation about education and looking for the silver lining. We continue to embrace outdoor learning, passion projects, joy in literacy. Shifting into overdrive, our goal is to meet the needs of those in our community, to make sense of the ‘new reality’ until we can get back to ‘normal’. And the queer irony, is that this natural disaster, doesn’t seem to want to end. The one thing we know to be true is that the ‘new normal’ is an ever-changing situation defined by ambiguity and indefinite uncertainty.
We knew that heading into the fall, we would have to ‘dial in and dial out’ of our traditional school delivery model. Like Chinese plate spinners, we are adjusting to the consistency of ambiguity, but the plates are starting to fall off.
I am a task oriented, list making person. Each day, I get up and set goals in the following quadrants: fitness, professional development/education, spiritual and career related tasks. I plan to meet a goal in each of those quadrants each day. Some days I am more successful than others. But what I have found as of late, is that the tasks I set take me longer to meet.
Collectively, we are experiencing major loss. Things we used to do for self-care, were taken away from us. Spas were closed, gyms shut, coffee shops only on drive thru - if that. And while there is no handbook for managing through this pandemic, perhaps we can define for ourselves a new way of traipsing along this chip trail of life.
Frist, we need to recognize that life will be different. Forever. We won’t return to ‘normal’ because COVID-19 has turned the snow globe upside down and has given it a good shake. We will, for the foreseeable future, suffer condescension and have the Scarlett Letter sewn firmly on our bosom if we forget our mask, or are not infused with the defining Chanel #5 of 2020; sanitizer. But what we can continue to try to work towards is what is needed in an environment that support creativity and innovation. In the midst of the chaos, our job is to work towards solid, predictable, reliable routines that is the very environment that will allow creativity, innovation and ingenuity to thrive.
