here and there #8 [change the question]

My dear dreamers,

via makermasters

Long break, huh? I'm writing you for the first time of this year because... it just didn't happen sooner.

But tonight I had a really weird experience. Having a dream in the third person. I was just a voyeur. I didn't know any of the characters of my dream. It was like a film. A good one, because it taught me a lesson.

And I'm sharing this with you because yesterday I received a one of a kind feedback. Some months ago I started a new project: Rules of Being Creative. It's not finished yet, but you can take a look at it here.

Rules of Being Creative is a study of my own methods in delivering a message. When I'm finished, I think it will be worthy a semantic study as well (maybe I'll write a book about it, one more to the pile).

Rule #1 is to break your own rules. But someone asked me: Why make rules if you're going to break them? It seems a suitable question, right? But then, why live if you're going to die?

Maybe rules aren't the right word. Or maybe we should change our way of thinking. Creativity has no rules, and yet could have an infinity of steps to follow.

What is creativity? I'll not search for a Wikipedia definition or look into a dictionary. Would they really answer me? I prefer to look inside. Creativity is the association of ideas. Mere thought. And where do ideas come from? It can be from movies, books, experiences. But maybe, just maybe, the most powerful are the ones we decompose, the ones we break and reconstruct. Lego is a perfect metaphor in what regards to the brain. It not only picks fragmented pieces (redundant or maybe not) of reality but it also combines them to create new worlds.

We evolve. We're not the same as we were yesterday and certainly our life tomorrow will be a bit different than it is today. And rules will follow. Or else slavery and death penalty would still exist, homosexuals will never marry and women will never be considered entirely equal to men.

We need to change the question. Why follow rules if we don't challenge them?

___

here and there #7 [good morning]
here and there #6 [pieces of pieces]
here and there #5 [she is me]

breathing #13 [one road only]

My dear dreamers,

♥ via Haruki Murakami

[this was supposed to be published at 8 a.m. today. but it seems blogger has a problem with following rules.]

In The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami, more precisely in his short-story Sleep, I read the following words:

The author maintained that human beings, by their very nature, are incapable of escaping from certain fixed idiosyncratic tendencies, both in their thought processes and in their physical movements.

I had to transcribe that to my Moleskine and add some notes beside it. I thought about the way I am and why I am like that. Who or what made me with these characteristics. Why am I shy and clumsy? Why do I like to read so much? Why am I never satisfied? Why do I have an interest about strategies but don’t seem to understand them? Why am I always seeking for perfection?

And can't I be other than myself? Am I stocked to the way I am until I die? Can't I do anything about it? It's scary, don't you think?

Both Murakami and Times of India talks about tendencies. We gather the world with our five senses and a part of it stays with us and shape us in ways we aren't aware of.

How you became the way you are is just a tendency that you developed because of the information you gathered. Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

It's a cycle, isn't it? You process the information this way because of your personality. And that information will change you, conscious and unconsciously, and the next piece of information you'll get will be perceived differently. What if we relived our whole life again? How will that change us?

How you became the way you are is just a tendency that you developed because of the information you gathered. The Times of India

This is the same thing in another words, black in white without the beauty of literary composition. A tendency. "So can we blame others by the way they look to the world? Can we blame ourselves for not being as cultural beings as we'd like or dumber than we wished it to be?", you might ask. Of course we can!

 It doesn't matter what impressions you have gathered, what you make of it is in your hands. Times of India

We are critical beings. We can always rethink our actions and shape them. We have goals and we can work towards them. We can read more, travel more and communicate more.

I do believe that our core will never change, that we can change little things like be kinder or deal better with stress. In a sort of way, enhancing our qualities and hiding our peculiarities. Not that I think that we should conceal them (when we're not hurting anybody, if you were wondering). It’s what makes us unique.

I’ll make an experience. It may sound stupid, but it’s me finding myself so what do I care what others think about it? I’ll record myself doing the things I do every day. The ones I don’t even have to think about. Whom are (almost) automatic. The ones I could even do with my eyes closed. And then do everything over, exactly like that: with eyes wide shut.

Clumsy as I am, maybe I’ll screw everything up and my analysis will go straight up to the can. (Well, at least I’ll try. Good excuse, ah?) But… maybe if someone joined me at this experiment… will you give it a try?

This is my inspiration of the week. No cute photographs, no amazing art works, no relaxation. It's Monday, the weekend is over and we better be prepared for the rest of the week. Your energy is now restores so you better do something useful today. Because tomorrow it will all be drained. Inspirations should lead to action. I'm doing the tough part. You better do yours! ;)