BIG MAGIC

Q: What is creativity? 

A: The relationship between a human being and the mysteries of inspiration. 

-Big Magic 

I was talking to my friend on the phone the other day, and she said to me: you know I don’t think you can be creative and violent at the same time; at least, it doesn’t feel that way.  

And although I had never thought of it in those terms exactly, something like this concept has been rolling around my brain for some time and it goes something like this: In our current culture and system, the act of creativity has been relegated to, at best, an extra-curricular activity and/or something primarily reserved for an exclusive group of individuals known as “artists;” at worst, it is considered a complete waste of time and completely inaccessible to the majority of the population except by virtue of some innate “talent” or “gift.”  

To my mind, creativity is the act of making something, anything that was not there before, and not just your stereotypical “artsy” stuff like paintings. To my mind, creativity is, at its core, an experience; and one that is essential to our humanity and universal in its application thereto. And creativity necessarily involves an act of vulnerability: because in the moment of creation, there can be no certainty regarding what the eventual product will become (will it be “good”? Will it be as I intended? Will it show others what I want to show and say what I want it to say? You simply cannot know) and this lack of certainty means that, on some level, we must lower our internal defenses (if we are to continue creating). Thus, creativity is an inherently vulnerable act. Additionally, creativity is an act that inevitably connects us to our souls, and ties us to the essence of being a human being. Thus, to my mind, when we detach from creativity, we detach from our souls. and when we detach from our souls, there are going to be consequences. (This is not a novel idea: Karl Marx foresaw that alienating ourselves from our innate creativity would dehumanize us, turning us into mere appendages to machines (and man, if there was ever a place for the side-eye emoji, it’s here 👀👀👀)). 

Put differently, I think creativity could be an important part of the solution to the problems that humanity is experiencing, including mental illness, rampant fear, ignorance, and hatred, and, as my friend said, the severe problem of violence here in America. So truth be told, have statics to demonstrate a correlation between man’s alienation from creativity  and violence or depression, but I strongly suspect they are. And I think we ignore the potential healing capacities of creativity at our own risk and the risk of all humanity.  

If you agree (or even if you don’t, but you feel yourself missing that inexplicable feeling of openness/ freedom/deep satisfaction that comes with acts of creativity) and you want the encouragement and license to STOP FEELING AFRAID AND JUST GO AHEAD AND CREATE, THE BOOK BIG MAGIC IS GOOD MEDICINE FOR THAT. (Haha yes! This is actually a kind of book review 😂). 

Creative Living Beyond Fear

In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert deftly entwines the craft of story along with useful wisdom. She writes short, impactful chapters that make reading this book as easy as you want your own  creative process to feel. She has some great one-liners like “done is better than good,” and “fear is boring,” (so TRUE!). She also presents some interesting paradigm shifts for our creative mindset, like treating your creativity as an illicit affair (because who gets excited about anything obligatory? No one, that’s who.) That being said, there are two main reasons you’ll want to read this book:  

First, Gilbert’s discussion about the nature of ideas themselves, and how they come to us, is truly compelling. And you know what? I’m not going to spoil it by summarizing it here—seriously, it's that good and I think you’ll want to read it just as she presents it in the book. 

Second: by the end of this book, I can all but promise you that you will feel sincerely JAZZED about creating something. You will want to create and believe that you can. Best of all, you will care less than you ever have about what others might think of it! That’s as good a reason as any that I can think of for reading this, or frankly any, book.  

You know the drill by now, right? Buy the book here under Sarah’s picks if you’re interested and help support local bookstores. 

--Sarah Kerrigan