Sorry it’s been a while since my last post. It seems depression isn’t very playful. I’ve been struggling a bit, but I’m still here and ready to talk about creativity again.
I realized the other day that my husband and I engage in creative thought practices all the time. This time of year we think of Halloween costumes, especially something we can make a pun out of. But we do it all the time. We think about potential names for cute steampunk race car drivers. (Constantina Velocity. Theopholous Fishtail.) We think about a name for a baby vampire (our favorite – Bloodlette). We think about what an alien race based on frogs would be like. We make every pun we can think of based on “window.” (It’s all clear to me now. You’re being a pane.) We come up with every name we can think of starting with the letter G. We play with these ideas and words and images while we brush our teeth, or drive in the car, or make breakfast. It’s just part of how we talk when we don’t have something super important to talk about.
I realized this is important because it gives us practice in coming up with silly ideas. We don’t do it to stay in creative shape, we do it to have fun and connect with each other and make ourselves laugh. But the result is we have practice coming up with crazy ideas and when we want to be creative about something in particular we have practice trying on possibilities. We are used to casting our minds out, trying to find words related to our idea, trying out the sound or the feasibility or the funniness. Instead of saying we are creative people, I think we are people who practice creativity.
Play Dates with Talia 