Tuesday, July 31, 2012

says friends hetore


You know what's possible today and what's not. You have a realistic outlook on life now, indicating that this may be a good time to make a decision about a major purchase or a job change. But don't limit your options by playing it safe. A calculated risk could be your smartest strategy, especially if you're willing to act methodically, rather than impulsively.  HORRORS-  maybe time to buy a car!


Today on Robert Genn's 'Painters Keys'. he talks about a John Cleese video on creativity:

"To be creative we need five conditions," Cleese says. "Space, Time, Time, Confidence and Humour." Yep, "Time" comes twice.

*   Space away from your normal space--space to swing a cat. An open space--a place with the feeling and sensibility of play.

*   Time in a significant and undisturbed dollop that also includes enough preparatory time to pass through our normally "closed" mode and into an "open" one. 

*   Time to take the further time it takes to get through the early, obvious ideas and ponder further into more original material.

*   Confidence to allow spontaneity and audacity. To get properly into the creative mode, you need to pull up the tiresome anchor of reason. There are no mistakes, and nothing that you think or do in your confident state can, for the time being anyway, be wrong.

*   Humour, because it relaxes, is also a bridge to the "open mode." Deliberately useless ideas that arise with the use of humour do not in themselves solve problems but serve as stepping-stones to the greater creative ideas. Disparate elements, suddenly combining into something new, are the very root of humour--and disparate elements, suddenly combining into something new, are the root of creativity.

Works for me.  I have (finally) the space, I have lots of time, even lots of 'further time', the confidence old age brings, and humor enough to clear a room.  Yup, I got it all.  But somewhere along the way I think I lost the burning need to do EVERYTHING I want to do.  Hope it comes back.

But that might be the overdose of Robitussin talking-  somewhere I picked up a cough that is way too persistent- persistent enough to drive TY out of the house to WalGreenes at 1 AM to find something-anythiing- to allow him some sleep for a  few hours.  Slept late, took more, napped.  Cough is better but walking isn't possible.  Laying low today, until the food runs out.

Thank You For Being a Friend...


Catnip, the source of the nation




2 comments :

Mary Beth Frezon said...

I really enjoyed the John Cleese video - I kept being surprised at how very serious (oops not quite, wait, no very serious...) he was and how he nailed his points. Well done.

One thing I got out of it was a good argument I can use to get myself to be better at cleaning up my house. Remove the stress. It's good to have a separate space but closing the door isn't always enough. I'm going to work on that. Sounds weird but it's true and hopefully will do something for me.

Mary Beth Frezon said...

PS thanks for that great TEDx talk by Phil Hansen. Awesomesauceness! I was reminded of people who have told me over the years that the reason they can't quilt is because they can't sew a straight line. Well then, do something else, but do something!