Eric's Sunday Sermon; The Creator Versus Society

We are at the same place that we have been for more than two millenniums. Oh East West does not matter at all. Tribal versus Civilized matters not. There is a seeming war between those who really create and the group think of society. First let us be clear that this “versus” is not war or a battle. It is simply a challenge. And let us also clear the air here, we are not talking about creating for profit. So we are narrowing this down a bit between the act of creating and the act of society.

Perhaps taking the notion of “being” may move us further toward a goal of rectifying the challenges between creation and society. “I am being creative” or “I am in a state of being creative”. It would seem as though the first is a concept of producing while the second lies in a concept of a connection to where creative”ness” comes from. Hey now do not judge me for judging, we are simply looking into an area of inquiry that may just tear down a wall that separates creativity and society a tad.

In our regular lives within the lives of others and via our own perception of ourselves we label. My dad was my dad. To others he was a doctor. To himself he was as many things as the world would let him be. A particular “job” was not defining to him. Even being my dad did not settle to restrict his being. Back a while ago before PTSD was as broad spectrum as it is today, we rated stressors of traumatic occurrences. Of course deaths of loved ones were always way up there in the charts. But always in the top few were divorce and job termination. And the connecting factor was not the routine or the heartbreak. It was the loss of identity. Yes it is a bit twisted but it goes like this; we become a dual reflection, we view ourselves “as” so society sees us “as” which we then accept as ourselves. So do we walk up to someone and say “Hi, I am a creator”?

So there is a built in conflict between social acceptance and group think and creation. Think of all the problems theologians had when clear definitive multiple separate anthropomorphic “Gods” were the norm. Conflict in creation was constant. Oh for sure most of us at some point have been in think tanks that were somewhat geared toward creation of something new. And they work if the goal is to bring about something that is accepted, profitable or persuasively needed by society. Something bottom line oriented. Oh and to be sure much of what moves us these days can be found by counting “views” across social media. Or perhaps excellent commercials move us into action more than the homeless in our rearview mirror. What I speak of here is just “is”. Not right or wrong. We wonder if that is the flow of society carrying us along or do the thoughts come from within.

Now about this time someone will have caught the title and just assumed we were making a direct reference to the Great Creator most call God. They may even be upset at possibly using a word perfectly correctly to their mind. And they may need to walk away now, but if they will miss the juice of creation by man.

The word creator was used for this title for a very salient point. Our creative impetus does not come from within us. Well we should say solely from us. I spent a good portion of time working in a very technical writing field. It was hardcore issue, rule, application and conclusion. Persuasive research driven stuff that had to be promoted as the right position. The other day I sat down with my pen and pad to write down all the times that I worked with people in such an area where the word “inspired” would begin to capture the writing. It just would not even once. The area is pure logic driven for the purpose of “winning”. But I could count dozens of times when I was rebuked for making emotional logic inspired arguments. And a funny thing happened along the way. I was successful at it. Really pissed conformists off. But the readers of it had basically really near perfect writing on either side of the issue. That was like a big “Duh”. But creating an emotional tug was just that extra something that would put the position over the top. When we first started this wacky world of internet the senior technical staff would love to say “if you gave a monkey enough bananas they could write code”. Obviously simply making the point that most daily stuff is just done by script. Creation is for those who operate both in the technical and that “higher” plane. A creator can get “follow the dots”, but the non-creator cannot get out of the dots. The purely linear thinker cannot look back on their work from a new perspective because there really was no perspective to begin with because there was no creation. (sorry that gives me a headache thinking about it)

So it would appear that society stymies the creator if the creator’s vision is a reflection of society. Please do not go to that place where eccentric movie stars and painters create something just to shock. That is not creating that is parroting that which is taboo. A big difference here as intentionally thinking only outside of the box is a convention all on its own. Boring!

Now we have a creator free of the bonds of the dictations of society. Now she is ready to dictate to society a creation. And by this freedom can truly impact society. So we completely ignore society in order to engage society. Whoa here is time for true confessions. I preached for a spell. Boy was that easy peasy. Read the Bible portion for the week. Meditate and pray on it. Discuss it with others. Get way into feeling love from and to people and God. Bada boom bada bing you could pump out an awesome sermon in as much time as it takes to give it. In case no one ever told you – the Christian Bible is an instruction book for dummies. Those who only parrot what it says are the dummies. God has given all people a very important gift. A mind – more than just a brain. Cogito Ergo Sum type stuff. So here in Eric’s Sunday Sermon, if you are conversant in your Bible you will just get it when concepts derived therefrom are incorporated. But that requires your use of your mind and my use of creativity. No one ever said that a beautiful painting of a mountain was not creative. Or even a wonderful photo of nature was not creative because they were just reflections of the mountain.

Because God gave everyone the gift of a mind, does not mean that God gave them the gift of creativity. Creativity is not a gift for two reasons. The first is that it can be a curse. Just ask Poe. The second is that it is not a gift, it is a reward for hard diligent effort. It is not like being born beautiful, it is more like the athlete with natural talents, that works 80 hours a week to create something special with that talent.

So muses and angels are out there and abound. But it is the love and passion of us that creates an open door to their heaven which allows us to receive the message that we must create. Creativity is not of us, it is through us.