My pipe-cleaner daisy
What did you do between things before you had a phone in your pocket? Did you pick up the guitar in the corner? Journal? Knit a Hermione Granger doll? And when you did those things with your fleshy, human hands, did it make you feel happier? A little better at life?
Those moments we spend mindlessly checking our phone used to be where imagination lived. How about we get that feeling of accomplishment and fun back?
To that end, I’d like to be your creativity sherpa. Your Swift*, your Atwood, or Ole Kirk Christiansen**. I’m going to put forward the idea that you were made to consume enough to live, but that you are not a consumer by nature. You are built to create. While we all consume in order to survive, we actually survive in order to interact in creative ways with the world around us.
An example of a good balance of consuming and creating would be the kid who watches a two-minute hockey video on YouTube and then goes out and practices taking shots against the garage door for an hour — ideally with the neighbour kids, and without breaking a window.
Same goes for adults like me. Case in point: I use this website not only to drum up business, but also to explore ideas and share. I could AI the whole thing or farm it out to my website provider, but I don’t — because the act of making these articles adds meaning to my life. It even makes me a better therapist.
I think it is time to imagine ourselves back into being makers, writers, and, umm… players — players of guitars, physical activities, and physical board games with other human beings.*
Is it even possible to imagine building more than watching others build? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around it. So I ask myself: what’s the smallest change I can make to get unstuck here?
Maybe a good place to start is a 10/3 ratio — for every 10 minutes I spend reading or watching YouTube, I’ll spend three minutes writing or fifteen minutes outside. Chances are that fifteen minutes spent outside leads to more. I already do this to make sure I get to the pool: the rule is I swim five times this week, even if only for a few laps each swim. If the rule was set at too high a time commitment — like “I’m going to swim for five hours this week” — I’d likely find excuses not to go, because an hour can seem like a long time. Yet even if I don’t need to spend an hour in the water, once I’m swimming I tend to stay way past the minimum I set for myself. Fun way to trick my brain into better habits.
Why? I don’t imagine that people find YouTube all that valuable. I know I don’t — and yet it’s still easier to throw on Pitching Ninja or Liverpool highlights than get up and move myself. Maybe it’s because creativity makes demands on us. If you try, you might fail. You can’t “get it wrong” watching YouTube or sing out of tune listening to iTunes. Those are (mostly) one-way streets. But, if you start to dance around the office, someone might laugh. If you write a song, they might not listen.
The fear of looking stupid was taught to us at a young age — and it’s that fear that keeps us from the joy of creating. We weren’t born with it. Kids are fearless that way — they think they’re the best at everything, until they’re taught otherwise.
Do you remember being young enough to sing when you wanted to sing? To dance when you wanted to dance? To ask whatever question came into your head because the world was a place to wonder out loud about?
How many times have you told someone,
I can’t…
– Sing
– Dance
– Paint
– Play ____
– Act
– Write poetry
– Make people laugh
We all have a version of that list. Don’t we?
Now, it might be true that you aren’t proficient at those things. But you probably aren’t proficient at skeet shooting either. So, the reality is that you can probably sing, dance, act, etc. at some level. And what happens if you allow yourself to sing, just a little?
Creativity is cheap and always possible. That’s why it’s the Pipe Cleaner of Creativity.
I want us to remember how low the stakes are. It’s not the giant slab of Italian marble of creativity. It’s not the Steinway grand piano of Creativity. It’s the humble Pipe Cleaner of Creativity.
Could’ve been the Kazoo of Creativity. Anyone who can aspirate can aspire.
It’s also the Pipe Cleaner of Creativity because of my walk-the-walk ethic. Like believing I’m not a dancer, I’ve long considered myself not-crafty. So I’d be a hypocrite if I promoted being creative only in the ways I’m practiced in — like playing guitar or musing about emotions in highly esoteric ways. With pipe cleaners, everyone starts on the same level! I might never be the world’s greatest pipe-cleaner architect or puppet maker, but I’ll admit I’m pleased with the pipe-cleaner daisy I made (thanks to a YouTube tutorial, of course).
In short, next time you’re feeling blah — when you don’t really want to tackle the next chore, but doom scrolling isn’t quite cutting it — create something. I assure you, you’ll feel more alive, a little more human. Can I also suggest that if you’re going to take a risk by trying something new, you keep it low-stakes and easy on the Visa card? We often get so caught up buying stuff to make things with that we forget the making part. You probably own enough stuff already. But are you using what you have? Pen and paper will do. Stories, sonnets, songs, even board games require little more than that. Or spend some time with the piano, guitar, or kazoo gathering dust in the corner — we have a lot of instruments in our house.
Or maybe you practice an “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” strategy, like I am right now. Do the thing you’d normally do compulsively, but in a creative way. Use the machine rather than having the machine use you. Like most people, I’m drawn to screens like a moth to a light (or Zoomers to the Prairie Theatre Exchange). And since I love to write and I’ve had this “Tools” idea in my head for years now, I started writing this series. Win–win. I get my screen time while making stuff I’m proud of.
This writing, like a Pipe Cleaner, costs next to nothing, is highly flexible, and can be quite colourful.
Find something — anything — and build with it. And if you don’t think anyone else will give a hoot, please know that one person would: me. Nothing makes me prouder to be human than seeing the creations of others. I’m happiest when creating with others — it’s why I love my job so much.