Creativity: Oxygen to the Fire
There are two things that I remember from Chemistry 30 about fire. They stand out in my mind because they both seem so odd.
First, a fire will only burn if oxygen is present. No matter what fuel is present if there is no oxygen there will be no fire. This is why, contrary to popular believe, one should not try to blow fires out. Yes, it works on birthday candles, but it tends to make things worse in most situations.
Second, the natural bi-product of every fire is water. It’s true. When hydrogen and oxygen burn they combine to make water. Of course it doesn’t make so much water that it puts the fire out… it is quite hot (on account of the fire) and so should probably be classified as steam rather than water. (http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=475)
(Thank you Calgary Board of Education.)
I bring this up as a Stage Two of the discussion concerning the combination of passion and creativity that yields life changing results.
According to my mac [F12] dictionary creativity is “the use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.”
I think the first half of this is agreeable enough, but the latter misses the mark.
It sort of suggests that the invention of Velcro didn’t have an ounce of creativity in it. Or that Einstein’s approach wasn’t creative.
Sure there is a whole group of people out there using their creativity for artistic work, but that doesn’t exclude everyone else from being creative! Creativity can show herself in many many different ways. Sorry, I mean many many many different ways.
In fact every person has the innate ability to create.
Stephen Covey, in his book 7 Habbits of Highly Successful People gives us a wonderful insight into creativity.
He says that every action, every step, every piece of art, every bridge, every piece of garbage collected is the result of not one but two creative steps.
The first is seeing before it is. Seeing your foot take the next step. Seeing how your art could turn out. Seeing how a bridge will work and drawing its schematics. Seeing the floor clear of rubbish.
The second act of creation is actualizing that which you envisioned. Taking the step, painting the picture, building the bridge, and picking up the trash.
In this light we are all very very creative people. We see and act every day.
Perhaps picking up garbage isn’t the most creative thing in the world. At some point someone did get creative about the task, though. A grabber/ nabber was affixed to the end of a pole. It could be operated from the top of the pole. Perfect! the creator didn’t have to bend over so much. Seems pretty creative to me.
Creativity can invigorate any activity that requires you to exert yourself to find a solution. (See Chpt. 9 and 10 that deal with how to focus creativity.)
Creativity is one of those things that is hard to describe. It’s a little too fluent to really peg down. In that way it’s a bit like air.
As was mentioned at the top of this article. Air has the potential to make things HOT. And we’re back to the car…
Performance vehicles are specially tuned to ram extra air into the engine so it can burn the fuel more efficiently and produce more power.
When we want to cover greater distances at more exilirrating speeds in the cars of our lives we must add air.
So to must we add creativity to our passion. It is this blend that creates explosive energy catupluting our livese into the best selling biographies section of Chapters and making an honest-to-God difference in our world.