Ralf Weiser's Blog – Shake Up Your Snow Globe! ©

Where does our creativity go when we grow older?

Where does our creativity go when we grow older? 

Recently I went to our local Charter School my children attend and there was an exhibit about art. This was art generated by K-6 graders and please find their creative results embedded in this post. Incredible, huh?

It suddenly occurred to me that every child contributed to this Artsfest. How come that when we are getting out of school we seem to have completely forgotten about our creative talents? Take a look around you at work and also at home. How much homemade or self-made art and other creative things do you see? Do we adults (on average) just no longer have the creativity we used to have as children? Is the creative energy perhaps just bottled up within us somewhere?

I finally concluded my quick self-inventory by thinking that I still have all the creativity I had from day one on this Earth. It is peaking out more than ever by ways of blogging and woodworking at home. How about you? We are supposed to lead a life on empty – when it is time to go we had better not have anything left to give before we are put into the ground. Just think of Robin Williams. He was the epitome of creativity and he had so much bottled up within him. The pain of his passing we all feel is a little preview how our loved ones will feel about us when we go too early and when we didn’t let our inner free and creative child out enough.

It is selfish keeping your creative juices bottled up. Let it all come out. We need more color and diversity in our lives. Getting older may be a good reason to not indulge ourselves and others in anything creative, but it isn’t an excuse.

Ralf