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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Abundance vs Emptiness


Sometimes I wonder, "What happens if I run out of ideas?" I think that worrying about running out of ideas makes you run out of ideas, kinda like a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, trusting that you will never run out of ideas can be a self-fulfilling prophecy that you'll never run out of ideas. Nothing squashes my creativity like the fear of not having any creativity.

I'm thinking about this because for a week in February and now a week in March, I have had huge gluts of creative energy and I wonder when these happen if I will "run out" of creativity sooner, if I will somehow 'empty' myself of creativity, leaving a void where all the already used ideas just spin around and around with nothing new coming out.

Do you see how my mind spins?

But never fear! I have decided that I can never run out of creativity because there isn't a 'limited supply' of creativity in the world (or in me). It's possible that if I am constantly taking in new ideas/images/sounds/textures that my store of creativity will always be replenished.

People will often say things like, "How many ways can there possibly be to make a granny square?" and I've decided the answer is something like, "How many notes are there in music? 7? ... and how many songs are there in the world?"

2 comments:

Anna Bananas said...

Actually there is 12 notes in music, and that's if you're thinking western music - apparently in India or some eastern countries, their virtuoso's are able to half the notes of ours, so they can sing between F and F# - crazy.

But who's counting, I think there is no limit to creativity, it's only when you start thinking about the end of your creativity, does creativity end. How did generations before get us to a day where we can talk over phones, cell phones, internet, etc... I'm sure they never thought a day would come when someone combined "face" and "book" to make a network of unlimited possibilities. It's only the beginning! Besides there will be a day when someone wants a crocheted Kindle holder :-)

Unknown said...

Great post. I've often worried about the same thing. But I figure that if no two snowflakes are alike, then who am I to worry about a finite amount of creativity in the world?