Conference quark::human_relations-v1

    	Wes - very interesting topic, thanks.
    
    	I teach a few MIS courses evenings at a local university, and
    in teaching a programming class - always encourage my students to
    use their creativity in defining programmed solutions to given
    problems. They sometimes ask - How ? not an easy answer - I just
    encourage them to turn the problem inwards, define their own solution
    rather than seeking a canned solution, and let their thoughts roam
    freely. 
    
    	Yes even in the sterile world of business software programming,
    there is room for creativity - accentuated in the world of Personal
    computers today. In some cases, there is a blending of computer
    literacy with artistic talenn - color graphic image painting.
    
    	Creativity is one of the aspects of our humanity which will
    not be seen under a microscope, so attempts by science to define
    it and how it works  are barren. Some, like myself, believe it is
    an attriubute given by the Higher Power who created us.
    
    	Yes - it is apecial, the satisfaction of completing an original
    is a real high.
    
    	Guy B.
    

    
    I knit, sew, and make things for home. Whilst this is satisfying
    it doesn't give me a great kick....
    
    ..the real thrill, I find, is through using creativity to solve
    everyday problems. Finding a new and fruitful way to look at
    an old problem I find is tremendously exciting, and it gives
    me a lot more energy to actually implement it rather than
    treading a well-worn route. 
    
    This doesn't refer to just work-related problems although 
    most of my "brain-waves" seem to come around my job. I
    am, fortunately, blessed with a manager who encourages
    this (and doesn't use irritating phrases ike "thinking 
    outside the square!).
         
    Would you consider this "creativity"?
    Or was your base-note directed at physically making things?
    
    
    'gail
    

    I use my creativity to balance my work with computers.  I design
    quilts and teach quilting, in addition to other types of needle
    work.  My first impression about quilting is that it was something
    that grandmothers did, and didn't see the creative possibilities.
    
    As I learned more about the craft, I discovered that includes
    components from a wide range of areas - drafting, design, color,
    texture, construction, aesthetics, among others.  I have only kept
    2 of my quilts, the others were made for special friends or occasions.
    My next goal is to design a series of wall quilts, so that I will
    have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques
    on a manageable scale.
    
    The time I spend stitching and designing is MY time; almost a
    meditation of sorts.  When I teach classes, I use another set of
    skills, providing my students with the basic tools for the craft.
    
    I find that I need my creative pursuits to balance things out. 
    My craft is also a means of expressing ideas.  Activities like music,
    theatre and dance require different energy, but also are a means
    of expression.  (Anyone who has ever seen kids in a creative drama
    class can understand how important that expression is.)
    
    Yes, I need my creative pursuits!
    
    Judi
    

               
    	I find that being creative is an extremely important part of
    living for me. I create all kinds of things, even this reply is
    just another creation of mine, where I make use of facilities and
    knowledge to put something together.
    
    	I find that, a lot of the time, it's also "extremely important"
    for my creation to be physically tangable. Building a wooden box
    takes on a lot of meaning to me, as "it's there" I can see "it"
    as a result of my efforts, in good ole everyday plain reality. At
    times, I find I MUST do this kind of thing, in the proverbial effort
    to keep both feet on the ground.
    
    	Creations such as I place in here do not meet the concrete
    tangability "requirement", because I need this *special* window to
    this space, just to see it. I also play music, which is a transient
    creation - unless it's recorded, which is something that never seems
    to happen at the *right* time. It seems that the best performances
    I do are "lost in the ether", never to be heard again...Unless I
    make an explicit effort to replicate it, but since music is emotional,
    it's highly likely that I'll not capture the feelings in the "one
    great time" and the subjective differences in how I play it will
    be apparent. The original creation is gone!
    
    	I'd enjoy being a carpenter, from the aspect of getting to
    see - in a concrete physical sense - something of a creative structure
    wrought from a pile of wood. Being a blacksmith would give the same
    sense of satisfaction for me, only working with metal.
    
    	Completing a theoretical analysis on a hypothetical electrical
    structure, using a canned program running on my workstation seems
    to lack in the "tangable results" aspect that some part of me wants
    to see for some reason. I can talk about them, show them on slides,
    even print them out - but, holding the pile of paper in my hands
    just doesnt compare to holding a real, three-dimensional, physical
    creation.
    
    	At least it seems that way to me...Anyone else feel this way?
    If so, how do you get yourself to actually feel that "you've done
    something"?
    
    	Joe Jas

        I don't consider myself a very creative person.  I'm good at
    taking an idea and expanding it, or taking two ideas and putting
    them together.  But it seems as if someone else has to plant the
    ideas in my head before I can get to work.  I'm rather frustrated
    that I rarely have original thoughts and that my "creations" are
    based on ideas I get from others.
    
        I also get frustrated when I try to create something with my
    hands.  What I draw, paint or whatever never comes out the way I
    imagined it to.  The only artistic endeavor I've gotten a lot of
    pleasure from has been photography and cinematography.  I consider
    photography to be just capturing my point of view, but the cinema-
    tography was the most "creative".  Angles, lighting, and camera
    movement are very exciting to me when I try to put them together.
    
    ASP

    I get annoyed when people imply that the liberal arts are better
    than the sciences because liberal arts are more creative.  Hah!
    You try an proof of NP completeness without any creativity and see
    how far you get.
    
    Any time a problem must be solved, there is room for creativity.
    
    What do I do with my creativity?  Well, I have at least three books
    mapped out in my head and various smaller scenarios with different
    characters.  I crochet afghans.  The real creativity there comes
    in coming up with the right afghan for someone.  (The only real
    disappointment I've had is when I couldn't find a good brown and
    had to settle for blue.)  Being in the support business, my job
    sort of requires creativity.  It crops up everywhere, not being
    the kind of thing you can really control.
    
    I find that often my creativity is reactive rather than truly
    generative.  I come up with things in response to someone else's
    creativity; more like a modification than a creation.  I've found
    that if I let things stew for a while, revisiting and revising
    occasionally, I come up with things that are much less derivative,
    more original and more personal.  Two of the three books I've mapped
    out were started off by catalysts over ten years ago:  one came
    out of the rush from seeing _Star Wars_ the first time and one came
    from the Kansas song "Lightning's Hand."  (The third, inspired by
    Robby Neville's "Dominique," is a sequel to the second, so it sort
    of inherits the benefits of the stewing process.)  Neither of these
    two books is much like the original premise, which is just as well.

    My creative outlet is through my voice not my hands.  I sing
    once a week at a "Mostly Music" service at the Science of Mind
    church.  It isn't a choir, it's a performance.  I find that
    making music is my therapy.  I feel that music keeps me in
    alignment with myself and the universe as a whole.  When I'm
    focused on the creativity and harmony of singing I feel like
    my whole being is a channel for positive energy.  As the energy
    flows through me it goes out to the audience and is reflected back
    to me multiplied by the number of people there.  It's energizing
    and cleansing both in body and spirit.
    
    Nanci

    My late mother-in-law came to this country very shortly after WWI.
    As she neared the end of her life, she talked very often about herself
    and her family, her husband and her old home in Germany.  My oldest
    son took notes about what she told, and his friend is putting it
    into some sense of historical order along with the pictures she
    left.  One of them has my late father-in-law in his German uniform,
    steel helmet with spike and all!  
    
    In my Psychology of Aging class, our prof. suggested that keeping
    a journal of one's life was both historical and a creative act.
    
    Since I like to write, I have begun a journal.  And I feel, when
    I am writing, that I am creating for my family not just the story
    of my life, but giving them a sense of historical continuity at
    a very personal level.  
    
    There are many ways to be creative.  I have a neighbor who has created
    2 generations of gardeners by teaching little kids how to grow flowers
    in patches of her land.  Most of those kids are grown and almost
    all of them have flower gardens which are a reflection of her
    teachings.
    
    M   
    
      
    
      

    Creativity is one of the sole purposes of my life.  It's my main
    goal.  It's the sine qua non of most of the things I do.
    
    I create when I:
    
    solve simple or complex problems, be they engineering or other
    write manuals (yes, it's possible....)
    play piano
    write poetry
    dance 
    make new friendships, or expand old ones
    make internal connections between how-things-are, and how-they-could-be
    take photographs
    love
    
    Creativity is vital to life.  Creativity is what keeps life
    interesting.  Creativity is one thing that sets us apart from other
    omnivores on the planet.  Creativity and honesty are the two things
    I admire most in other people.

        -Jody
    

    I'm in a class where we recently took an assesment on what our values
    are.
    
    I found I scored extremely high in creativity.  And yes, creativity
    is important to me.
    
    Creativity is to me:
    
    Solving engineering problems
    Writing poetry
    Writing prose/novels
    Interacting with friends/getting to know them better.
    Writing letters/notes.
    Sewing
    Decorating a new place
    Building something.
    Making an old item into something different.
    Writing test plans.
    Figuring out how to show/tell someone that I really love them.
    Dancing.