On creativity and old dreams

A cute puppy just for you...

I've been going through the writing I did at the end of last year as writing exercises. The exercise was to wake up early and write for half an hour. I thought I'd post an extract of one of my better entries. It’s a little bit loopy - the early mornings didn't agree with me - but there are a few ideas I thought were interesting.

2/12/2013

Creativity is a strange idea. Who can tell what fathomless ideas will spring fully formed from our minds like we are giving birth to the collective’s child, or what idea we will drag kicking and screaming into the world and bully into a semblance of creativity. There are so many expressions and various turns of phrase that will allow us to reach across the gap between people and shove our ideas down their throats, but who knows which are the right ones? What do we do when we can’t express ourselves and the block is marrow-deep, with no end in sight?

I had a dream last night that I found fascinating. The elusive tendrils of my dream are fragmenting like mist in the sunlight, but I remember thinking - while I was experiencing the dream - that it would be fascinating to write about, as it was a shocking and tragic event. I also remember thinking that it was a good opportunity to remember that writing requires depth and … What’s the word. Despair? No – more like adversity. We need to deal with ideas bigger than ourselves and overcome the tragedy to come out triumphant. Every good story that I’ve gotten drawn into has been vivid and tragic. Bad things happen to the characters, and they grow stronger from the events, overcoming the adversities.

I feel that my mind is trying to help me now, with the vivid and chaotic morass of dreams in my head, but I have trouble recalling these dreams when I wake up. I aim to remember these in greater detail as I continue my project, so we will see what changes, and how I go from here. The dream this morning was enough to wake me into a panic attack, but the dream itself was not that scary. It was tragic, like a car crash might be, but I have already forgotten the details, after swearing to myself that I would remember. It was one of those dreams where you think you’re awake, and that it’s real, until you finally wake up and breathe a sigh of relief that it’s all over and that you’re still here and safe.

On Solar Roadways

I'd just like to bring something to your attention - in case you haven't already heard of it. I've only just discovered this website through social media, and I'm so impressed that I want to share it with as many people as I can reach. Please, please please don't just dismiss this. I believe with all my heart that this project can make a huge impact on our world.

It's a project called Solar Roadways - the website can probably explain it better than I can, but I'll give you a brief summary. Basically, they are solar panels with in-built processors and LED lights covered by a super-strong glass in a tile that can be laid on the road. It's a US invention, and they're trying to raise funding for the next phase of development. They've already done tests of all sorts on them to see how well they work, and they've passed all test with flying colours.

I really think this could revolutionize the way our world works. On the website, they talk about how these panels, if laid over the whole road system of the US, could produce 3 times the current power demands of the country. Imagine what we could do with that. The road signalling systems could potentially reduce accidents on the road by making the road lines easier to see. The LEDs that are part of the roads allow the possibility of turning the road into a sign - imagine driving along the road to work and you see a message on the road that warns you of an accident up ahead and directs you to a detour - reducing traffic and congestion. And because it's all linked, you could immediately see when there was an issue with a section of road and dispatch a team to simply replace the plates - no more massive roadworks. The road system could also act as a delivery system for electricity, internet (via fiber-optic cables), even provide coverage for mobile networks. We could do away with telegraph poles and city cell phone towers, and make our planet prettier. It could eventually reduce fossil fuel consumption by powering electric cars on the go. This could be the next big thing since the mobile phone.

It could be a solution to most of the ills facing the developed world. It could solve environment issues like carbon emissions, global warming, as well as provide power, better internet service, better phone coverage, better road surfaces, better road safety, and probably even help economies by creating a whole new infrastructure. I've never seen anything that could make such a huge impact on our world. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a project the whole community could get behind? We could be on the forefront of the next stage of a world phenomenon.

Male vs Female?

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook, and after I read it, I just had to say something. This is something that has been brewing for a long while, and after certain recent events, I'm starting to see that it's not just me that feels this way. Our society needs to be taught to think correctly. And sometimes I have days where I can't see how we can change these things - I feel like we need to wipe the slate and start afresh with a whole new community. And other days, I feel like all we need is a push. All we need is enough voices trying to change the way we think. These changes are slowly happening, like the sun peeking over the horizon. All we need to do now is keep pushing, keep the movement going, and maybe one day, we can live in a society where we are all equals, regardless of gender or race or earnings.

It's a nice thought, and one I'm sure I will return to again. Anyway, here is my response to the above picture:

"We raise boys to be strong and protective. We teach them that being vulnerable is only for girls, that they have to be emotionless otherwise they're not a man. We tell them they have to be successful. They have to be the bread-winner, they have to be better than the girls, otherwise they are less.

We teach men shame - close your mouth if you have something bothering you, just suffer in silence. We teach them that they are a danger to girls, that they are the enemy. We make them feel as though by being born male they are committing a crime. And so boys grow up into men who cannot allow themselves to be human, to make mistakes. They grow up to be men who silence themselves. They grow up to be men who cannot say what they truly feel. And they grow up - and this is the worst thing we do to our children - girls and boys alike - they grow up to be adults who turn pretence into an art form.

We have founded our society on this - it abounds in our advertising, in our jobs, in our government, in our schools and in our homes. We are teaching ourselves again and again that we are different - when we are not. Male or female, every person should have the chance to choose for themselves who they want to be."

The Choice... Between Good & Evil

We make a lot of choices and decisions every day. Whether to get up and go to work, what clothes we are going to wear to work, what we’re going to have for breakfast, etc etc. But how many times do we wake up and say “I’m going to be ‘Good’ today.” Or even “Today feels like a day to be ‘Bad’.” What do you think when you walk past a homeless person on the street. Would you ignore them and walk on?

Watching Anakin grow up in the Star Wars movies, I realised that it was a choice that we need to make every day. And the trouble is, it is so much easier to be bad. Doing ‘Good’ is really hard work. Actively doing ‘Bad’ is pretty hard work too, but when we take the easy way out and refuse to make a decision, we are effectively casting our vote towards the bad. Our indifference is enough to tip the scales. Martin Luther King said – “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Albert Einstein also commented on this – “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

That’s not to say that I think we should all be out there protesting in the rain, trying to end poverty – although I still think it’s a good cause – but I am interested in trying to shift the alignment back towards good. It’s a hard issue to tackle for most people, because 1. There are so many differing definitions of Good and Bad, and 2. It’s too much effort.

All I can say is that my goal (as of a few days ago) is to make the choice for Good a part of my morning routine. It will be a slow start, but I am going to focus on projecting love and compassion and a sincere desire for positive change out into the world. I know how easy it is to say when I’m already in a good mood, and that the test will be when I am in a bad mood, but my aim is to eventually phase out the negative thinking that causes the bad moods.

I’ve had pretty good success so far, managing to calm myself completely before an interview, managing to keep little things that would normally ruin my mood from getting to me, and above all – managing to keep on top of my thinking when I start to circle in negative space. So here’s to keeping our thinking positive and actively choosing Good every day.

The Selfie Experiment

Why is it that the person we see in the mirror is so different to the person that we think we are?

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This is a pretty common saying – I've found myself saying it again and again – but what do we really mean by that?

Do I see the same image of a person that you do when we look at them? Or is the visual image filtered through the layers and layers of other things going on in the interaction? For instance - have you met this person before, do you like them, are they happy, have you had a bad day, do you like their clothing, when was the last time you fought, has she lost weight? … All those deeply philosophical questions.

Why is it that almost every one of the girls I have spoken to about this (and most of the boys too) are insecure about themselves? It’s a question just about everyone has asked themselves – how do you convince that friend who’s really beautiful but just can’t see it no matter how much you tell them? Do you do the same thing when people compliment you? When was the last time you took someone's compliment at face value and accepted that they really and truly were telling you the absolute truth as they saw it?

I have this image in my head of a confident, beautiful and worthy person. But when I look in the mirror and everything that I've been taught, every image the media has pushed at us, every disparaging remark from the people I've met comes flooding to the forefront of my mind, and the beauty I thought I would see has been replaced by a Plain Jane, too fat and too different to be beautiful.

So tonight, I set out to try and isolate the difference. Granted all I had was a bathroom and a camera, but I figured that was enough to give me an idea. Was it the angle, the lighting, the expression? Turns out the best one of the first lot was the duck face I pulled in exasperation. And there’s no way that counts.

I tried thinking positively, and that seemed to work a little better – if only because I forgot to smile. I kept going, and somehow I felt I was starting to look better, but the camera wasn't keeping up. It seemed to me that even though I could now look at myself in the mirror and see a gorgeous scintillating woman, and I could even look at the camera screen and see a pretty young girl, in the moment that the camera captured the image, the heart and soul dropped out of the picture and I immediately started to think that I look horrible.

I have had a unique experience today. I've gotten to see myself as 4 different people at once. The person I think I am when I’m looking out of my eyes – the elegant and confident she-wolf. The woman in the mirror – the dignified and graceful Lipizzaner mare. The girl the camera shows while I'm taking my picture – the sassy and mischievous vixen. And finally, the water buffalo that stares out of the frozen image at me. The only thing that I can think is that this is a matter of mind over matter (as all things are in the end).

The power of the human mind is such that it can do anything. But what it chooses to do at the moment is show me the gradual dilution of the energy that makes up me. When I’m happy, and I’m dressed up nicely and made up, I feel stronger, sexier, more confident. So of course my own self image is going to reflect that – until reality intrudes. But it is interesting to see the stages.

My working theory at the moment is that since what a camera does is freeze and capture a moment in time, it doesn’t allow the full impact of a person’s personality through. I have friends that have the most amazing energy and are incredibly attractive in person, but the moment they get on camera they lose all of that and end up looking like … well… a buffalo. And then I know people that are physically attractive, and take wonderful pictures, but don’t have quite as much of a vibrant personality, which makes them less attractive to me in person. Maybe the people that I know that take nice photos have simply learnt to project their personality through the screen at us.

Long story short, it seems pretty clear to me that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Or maybe the presence. As the viewer is removed from the immediate presence of an attractive person, it lessens the impact that their personality has upon us. And if a large portion of their attractiveness is in their personality and their presence, then of course it won't translate as well.

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The disclaimer: I choose to think that my opinion is valid, simply because it makes me feel better about myself. Yes, this blog is very heavily self-centred. That's the point. If your opinion is different from mine, then feel free to tell me where you think I’m wrong and why. I like to see other people's points of view, and discussion and debate on these things is welcomed.

Wikipedia states:
“Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture. An "ideal beauty" is an entity which is admired, or possesses features widely attributed to beauty in a particular culture, for perfection.

The experience of "beauty" often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. Because this can be a subjective experience, it is often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

There is evidence that perceptions of beauty are evolutionarily determined, that things, aspects of people and landscapes considered beautiful are typically found in situations likely to give enhanced survival of the perceiving human's genes.”

An interesting video to consider on the unrealistic standards set by Photoshop – by College Humour.