November 12 , 2005
At some point in our middle years, we may arrive at a crystalline moment when we realize an amazing phenomenon of life.
That once-nagging voice in our heads gives us a break and says instead, “Hey, wait a minute. Wonder of wonders. You do not have to be brilliant anymore!”
All the energy we once expended on being educated, well-informed, creative, successful, wealthy, and dazzling just is not there anymore. You know what else--that is just fine with us.
Simplicity and harmony are all we really want, and maybe, a quiet dinner with friends.
Comedienne Marsha Warfield agrees and once quipped, “You get a little perspective when you pass 30. I’m beginning to appreciate the value of naps. Naps are wonderful. It’s like what was I fighting all these years?”
Not only do we love our naps, but we are more likely to operate on instinct and wisdom than on our acquired knowledge of facts and data.
Prior to the need for naps, I used to buy into the advice of creativity experts. That was back when I had the energy to follow it.
These “creativitists” tell us that we are limiting ourselves and that we take the easy way and become lazy. I am assuming, firstly, that someone invented the word “creativitists” to be imaginative, but I just find it to be silly.
If we must be creative, though, experts tell us we need to break out of our routine and try something different.
For example, creativity gurus ask us, “How do you drive to work?”
Most of us will answer that we take the same old way. The car knows how to get there anyway. No thinking required.
More than likely, you already take the same tiresome way because that is what we human beings do. We allow ourselves to get in a rut, and then we happily stay there.
At this stage of life, I say, so what.
We Boomers have earned the right to drive to work anyway we want. Might be we are too exhausted to be creative just for the sole purpose of finding a new way to exercise our brains.
Take my friend, Sam. He doesn’t put much stock in the need to be creative. Sam bought a new camper and now takes all his vacations in it. True, he considers only one way to get anywhere-- in the camper, but at least he’s going somewhere.
Grandpa Rooney does not think he needs creativity experts either.
Since Grandpa loves the outdoors, one day, he decided to take his grandson Jake along to teach him how to hunt ducks.
After bragging quite a bit about his skills, Grandpa saw a lone duck begin to fly across the lake. “Watch this,” says Grandpa. He took a careful aim and fired, but the duck just flew on its way.
Jake said, “Grandpa, you missed him.”
Without missing a beat, Grandpa said, “No, Jake, you have just witnessed a miracle. There flies a dead duck.”
Now, that is my kind of creative thinking!
