As creators, we can be both introspective and outward-looking. We can have an awareness of ourselves and at the same time, we also can keep at the fore, an external awareness of our world, of our global and of our local communities. “As members of society, we are attached to strings – to certain behavioral agreements essential to reasonable group cooperation.”
An internal and external awareness are both important ingredients in our creative balance because our creative production affects in varying degrees, others as well. So I suggest that you keep exploring simultaneously, your internal and your external worlds and not let one negate the other. A sense of self can be diminished by the onslaught of the ever-changing circumstances of the world and the fluctuating personal situations in which you find yourself, but it is important to remember that originality springs from within – from who you are:
Who Am I?
There’s me the intellectual.
Me the intuitive.
Me the apoplectical.
Me the subdue-itive.
Me the truth-seeker.
Me the phony.
Me the born-leader.
Me the lonely,
Me who hogs the spotlight,
Me who’s painfully shy.
Me who is always right.
Who am I?
It is hard to really know our selves. We meet aspects of ourselves in our night dreams and daydreams, but many of us are not really aware of this or that we are more than one self. We are many selves, the one molded for public consumption and the other yearning-to-be self almost snuffed out, barely inhaling its own selfhood, smothered by the expectations of others and of ourselves. So here are just a few conflicting selves for you to think about: Fragile? Resilient? Limited? Unlimited? Adventurous? Timid? Resolute? Indecisive? Apathetic? Motivated? And so the list goes on…
Ellen, you write the truth. We are all complex and can not be defined even to ourselves. We are a dynamic and strange species not easily understood but fascinating especially to ourselves.
Thinking and creating outside the box is a challenge for many people. In many cases, it has to do with acceptance by our peers. If you create within the so-called Box, you’re much safer but in many ways less creative because you’re tied to a Bungee Cord that pulls you back to the “safe” zone. So–How do you break the Bungee Cord? You start by creating just for you. Don’t create for the masses. What matters first is “How do you feel about what you just created?” You’ll be amazed by the results if you’re creating just for you!