Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things.
Steve Jobs
Many say that you learn faster when you are young. I think, the young have less ability to connect experiences of learning new things. I learned to play the piano when I was a child. For more than a decade I practiced the skill of trying new things. Ingrained into my very soul is this creative process:
- This is awesome
- This is tricky
- This is hard
- I can't do this
- This might be okay
- This is awesome
When my daughter-in-law gave my son and I a pie making class for a gift I thought "this is awesome". Then when I was rolling out my dough I made the mistake of looking around. NEVER LOOK AROUND AT OTHERS WORK! It catapulted me into the "I can't do this phase." I might have stayed there but I know how the process works. I can synthesize this hard new skill into my past experiences. The pie tasted awesome but truthfully it looked "blah".
If I can live through the "this is hard, I can't do this stage" learning new things is good. One would think that as we got older we would have fewer new things to learn but alas, it is not true. My aging body forces me to learn new maintenance skills everyday.
The name of my blog reinforces the truth that starting back on the floor again is a never ending cycle. A balance act of reviewing old skills and trying new makes life fresh every morning.
I am joining Ann Dee Ellis and other writers in using a prompt to record memoir moments. If you don't write your story, who will?
Love this. This is how I learned the basics of knitting and crotcheting in my later years. However, true to form I found myself using the same crotchet stitch over and over because it became automatic and easy. My goal this fall is to learn new stitches and how to read and follow a pattern. I'm finding that as I get older I'm loving learning new things. You have inspired me to make that apple pie I say I'm going to make every fall.
ReplyDeleteSo many truths in this. I think one of the things we learn as we get older is how many more things there are to learn! Also, I need to get up my courage and get back on the mat. Thanks for the reminder. Enjoy your pie.
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