Harvesting Creativity   
Joe Ferguson, PhD | November 20, 2009

     It is impossible to tell whether another person is being creative or not. It is difficult enough to tell whether we are being creative ourselves. This is because the essence of creativity is surprise, delight, and the invisibility of origins. What is taken for creativity is often merely the repetition of what was creative at some point in the past, or what was learned elsewhere. Think of the aging pop star singing his only hit for the 10,000^th time, or the 30,000^th image of the lifeguard tower on main beach. Even the most original works can morph into platitudes over time. As a florid narcissist I hope that you experience this ad copy as creative. As an enlightened narcissist I understand that if I were to run it every week for a year you would cease to find it so, and if you discovered that someone else had written it you would never credit me with creativity again. As an honest narcissist I realize that I stand on the shoulders of giants, teachers, family, friends and colleagues. I know that this text is not as creative as I hope you think it is.

     Now this is not to disparage creativity but rather to exalt it by setting it apart from its imposters. In addition to its many practical and aesthetic benefits, creativity is a thrill. Beneath the surface of consciousness lies an enormous bubbling stew of neural and glandular activity; a mob of impressions, thoughts and impulses, all high on endocrinal drugs. Some of these subconscious sirens sing in distinctive voices. There are among them geniuses and idiots, devils and saints, muses and gorillas; all clamoring for our attention. To dwell there is insanity, but it is from this babbling chaos that creativity emerges. We can watch this cacophony from above and impose some unexpected order on it, as though our unconscious were a Rorschach inkblot that we can interpret and render according to our own craft and disposition. If the result surprises and delights, then we experience it as creative and we get the rush of exhilaration that we seek. Creativity can be intentionally cultivated and harvested. Call me.