© 2009 Lynsey

074 – Sights unseen

The key question isn’t “What fosters creativity?” But it is why in God’s name isn’t everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything. — Abraham Maslow

In Auckland today, I accidentally broke the pattern and walked across the road in a slightly different place and there, almost next door, was this crippled tv. Well, it’s the suburbs, you know – slobbering dogs, hair in curlers, daytime tv, cereal (and wine) straight from the box, cigarettes, and sleeping pills – but somebody, perhaps Hire-a-Hubby, perhaps the Council, had mown around the tv. Now there’s a message.

It’s really easy in bigger cities to get photos of the lower ebbs of human endeavour. I almost didn’t take the shot because I’m trying to avoid the trite. What spoke to me was not the tv, but the careful mowing – the mower has been kept well away from the carcase. A carefully considered act – a work of some creativity. Meanwhile various creatures will have moved in to inhabit the potential offered by the niche – entire micro-ecosystems will have developed in, around, and under the set. They’re feeding off or are sheltered by the creation, and they’re all probably thinking the whole thing is a terrific opportunity.

I think we often don’t see terrific opportunities. We don’t bother the potentials that inhabit our creative niche, instead we choose to leave them undisturbed under the tv. Probably all it would take to change things slightly would be to cross the road in a slightly different place and keep our eyes open.

Manifesto
17. Every day look through a new lens.
25. Every day your light shines for others to see.
41. Every day use your mind. It is the greatest technology ever created.

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