Assembling the creative

If you are like me, you spend some portion of your waking hours in appreciation of the creative people around you. How did they come up with that? Where did their inspiration originate? What motivated them to keep working until their creation was a reality?

The desire to create is a spark inside all of us. Despite the possibilities that each of us hold, only a few ever harness the energy to make an idea come alive, become sustainable, and achieve a level of acceptance that changes lives.

That creativity can come in a wide variety of packages. It could be in the words of a novel or poetry, the musical notes and rhythms of music, the development of a physical skill in a workshop or on a playing field, and even in the imagining of a social order or humanitarian mission.

Much of that potential remains hidden — and for various reasons. Many of those reasons are out of necessity. Millions of people are living on the edge and every ounce of their being is directed to survival for their families and themselves. That edge differs depending on a person’s situation. It could be the lack of clean water and nutrition. War could be a constant threat. Violence and persecution exist in all strata of societies.

Yet, if we look closely enough, we see people in all circumstances who create things and ideas that are world-changing.

What is different about these champions of creativity? I’m certain that there are a mountain of reasons that I can’t begin to name.

Sunset at Casa de Togo. December 30, 2025

One hurdle for me is my failure to recognize creativity as the assembly of a new way or solution from items that are already within my reach. If I want to write a great novel, there are words available for that — along with millions of scenarios unfolding in the world around me. If I want to create art and beauty, my inspiration can come from observing nature and even the wonder of inventions and appliances others have created. If I want to be skilled at a trade or a task, the educational opportunities abound.¹

For Christmas, I gave my three year old grandson a set of stacking blocks. I think I was remembering the hours I spent as a child with wooden blocks building structures and pretend fortresses. But these new blocks were cut at angles and somewhat difficult to stack. I was frustrated as we sat in the floor with them. But Henry wasn’t. He soon made a game of seeing how many he could assemble into a wobbly tower before they fell. Perhaps in some sort of recognition of the whole Tower of Babel problem, he was eager to knock the whole thing over if it became too tall and gangly. And he was eager to explore other non-tower uses as the blocks became the boundaries of a highway for his toy cars.

That time with Henry helped me to realize that I could be creative in any venture if I would allow myself to look at what is in front of me and to be willing to concentrate on what it does and what it can do. Henry gifted me with an appreciation of the vision that aligns with assembly and the curiosity that comes with the exploration of possibilities. And the willingness to see the beauty of what has already been created, whether from divine or human assembly.

1. Although, societies have frequently made education available only to a few. This move, even in our elementary grades, has resulted in the overall dilution of resources available to the masses.