Creativity isn't about glitter and paint
Teaching our kids (and ourselves) to rethink how things have always been done
I read a book recently that had an entire chapter devoted to teaching kids about creativity. One sentence from the chapter said something along the lines of “creativity is not about glitter and paint,” and when I read that, I thought, Bingo! That’s it.
So often I think we equate creativity with arts and crafts. It began with school projects, when grading rubrics would include points breakdowns with a certain proportion allocated for grammar and content and then a few remaining points for “creativity.” Creativity usually had to do with how colorful and intricate the posterboard looked. Then we ventured into adulthood and assumed creativity applied only to those of us who made our living playing music or acting or writing. Maaaybe we would take up a creative hobby on the side—painting still life canvases or sewing Halloween costumes or helping our kids build their science projects—but that was the extent to which we would flex our creative muscles.
I doubt many middle-aged adults would consider themselves particularly creative. Time for creativity is sucked up by doing all of the regular life things like working, cleaning, parenting, and maintaining the household. I do not know if it is a value that we even think we are trying to cultivate in our children, which is why it struck me when I saw an entire chapter devoted to the subject in the parenting book 14 Talks by Age 14. One of the conversations the author chose to include among the 14 was a conversation about creativity. Creativity? Really? But she won me over. I agree that creativity ought to be prioritized over other worthwhile values because creativity enables us to have productive and contented lives.
I even like focusing on creativity more than grit or perseverance because while the latter two focus on enduring when things are hard (no doubt an important skill) creativity focuses on creating new good things. Creativity is the supplement to grit, the optimistic lens through which to view problems. Figuring out how to make something new or put two things in combination or daring to try something different will naturally make us stretch and grow. We cannot be stuck if we are looking for ways to innovate.
What would it do for us all if we intentionally named the creative solutions already among us?
I see parents of young children creatively adapting their careers and arranging their schedules so they can spend time with their children and earn a living doing what they love.
I see creativity in myself when I take a familiar old thing and present it to a new audience or offer it at a new time.
I see creativity in the mundane, like making kitchen cleanup more joyful by listening to family playlists and holding impromptu dance parties while washing the dishes.
I even see creativity in my children’s fibs, when they earnestly tell me that no, they do not have their jacket anymore, not because they lost it, but because our dog mistook it for a chew toy. Problem solving at its finest.
I want to lower the bar for what counts as creativity because I think we set impossible standards. Creativity happens in the midst of normal life, not in spite of it.
So far the “write 24 for 2024” challenge has stretched me in positive ways. This year I decided to commit to writing just two to four minutes each day. That is not a lot. It is so little, in fact, that I can almost talk myself out of it. I just get into a groove, and the two to four minutes have passed. But that means I often keep going when I have time. I create time for deliberate practice. And when I do not have the time? That is fine. I only committed to four minutes. What is good about building the habit is that it becomes easier to return each time. I fight less resistance in my mind about how hard writing will be or frustrations about whether or not I have anything to say.
Writer and speaker Laura Vanderkam is fond of saying “effortful before effortless.” She applied this principle to leisure, meaning: choose the puzzle or the novel before watching TV or scrolling Instagram. Do the things that take effort first, and often we discover that we want to keep on doing them. They are energizing; they simply require an initial energy expenditure.
Sometimes we underappreciate creativity because we think it is amoral or unnecessary or frivolous, but I disagree. Creativity makes us better versions of ourselves. Creativity brings at both levity and depth into the world. Creativity helps us to understand our purpose and place in this life.
It’s not about the glitter.