I caught a riveting discussion on NPR yesterday about the roots of creativity: it has some great take-aways, including the need to think like a seven year-old.
For today, I’m not going to try to outdo the discussion, but recommend it as food for thought.
I sometimes spar with my not-far-from-seven year-old about thinking about ridiculous consequences
. That’s not because I think such thoughts are useless or silly, but mainly to remind her, advise her, about the need to keep things in proper context. But, I will now do that and try to make sure that she does not feel her creativity is being thwarted. I cannot and do not wish to control her dreams, and often listen attentively to her retelling about the ‘monster’ that came to try to eat her during the night. It’s usually one of her feared objects–bugs–with mouths the size of a train tunnel and more legs than she can count. Maybe, I should get her to write these down and try to illustrate them. In any event, I will continue to use her view of the world to help inspire my attempts at being creative.
