Creativity is innate

Proud Dad moment. My son is very creative. He loves to paint and draw and make up intricate lengthy stories with play-doh. He’s quite content to play with his Lego for hours, making up all kinds of characters, which he gives funny rhyming names and then interacts them with one another. He also comes up with little expressions. A couple of days ago, when I got home from work he charges at me joyfully for a cuddle and says, “you’re a Velociraptor and I’m a meteorite” - it was badass. I laughed to myself and imagined a wrestler saying something like that before a fight. His playfulness with language has really come to life this past year. It makes me think of what the linguist Noam Chomsky said that, “creativity is innate”. Or Picasso, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.” The realities of economic management and survival seem at times at odds with our natural state of being in wonder. There are some who’s sense of play translates well to the money game, there are others traumatized by the drama of money’s absence. I’d like to oversimplify the whole thing by saying, “have fun, enjoy every moment, you are an innately creative being, play your way to prosperity “ , but I don’t wish to insult the very real struggles of those stressed to the eyeballs with economic and existential uncertainty - 2022 was a tough year for many in our local area, some losing everything in flood and having to begin again from scratch. May opportunities for creativity and free play be plentiful in 2023 and may we find innovative solutions together as a species to prolong our time of wonder beneath the Sun and Stars. May we not be Velociraptors just yet.
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