{"id":8661,"date":"2019-11-02T15:09:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T22:09:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/?p=8661"},"modified":"2019-11-02T15:09:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T22:09:47","slug":"creativity-as-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/creativity-as-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Creativity as magic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michael Shapiro<\/a>\u2019s latest book is a winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is an excerpt from the introduction of The Creative Spark: How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their\u00a0inner fire<\/a> and\u00a0followed their dreams.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminds me of an important message for every one: We are all unique and have our stories to tell. No one else can tell your story. Only you can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Creative Spark<\/em> by Michael Shapiro<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Something magical happened as I completed this book. One evening\njust before sunset I was in our backyard watering the planter boxes. On a stem\nof parsley I noticed a startling pattern of color, concentric rings of orange\nand black dots. Looking closer I saw the segments of a swallowtail caterpillar\nand could identify its tiny feet. For the next few days the caterpillar chomped\non the parsley plant, absorbing energy for the next stage of its life. I placed\na stick in the pot, at an angle to give the caterpillar a place to hang its\nchrysalis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caterpillar\u2019s appearance felt like a message from the\nuniverse. For many months I\u2019d been working on transforming interviews I\u2019d\nconducted with some of the world\u2019s most creative people into a coherent set of\nchapters. I\u2019d distilled the essence of these interviews into a tonic of ideas\nabout the creative process. And I\u2019d written biographical introductions that\nsought to put each person\u2019s life in perspective and offer insights about the\nsources of his or her art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I write this, on 2019\u2019s summer solstice, our adopted\ncaterpillar (my wife has given it the gender-neutral name Jordan) is undergoing\na miraculous transformation into a butterfly. During the past week, we\u2019ve\nwatched the caterpillar turn into a chrysalis that matches the color of the\nbranch from which it hangs, its striated brown camouflage the antithesis of the\ncolorful creature it was just a few days ago. Yet it\u2019s what is happening inside\nthe chrysalis that is truly astonishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caterpillar is dissolving, using enzymes to digest itself. It\u2019s being broken down into nonspecific cells that can be used for any part of the butterfly. Yet some \u201chighly organized groups of cells known as imaginal discs survive the digestive process,\u201d according to Scientific American. Each of these constellations of cells is programmed to build a specific part of the butterfly. There are imaginal discs for wings, for eyes, for legs, for every part of the butterfly. Typically, after about two weeks, a yellow-and-black swallowtail butterfly will crack open the chrysalis, dry its wings in the morning sun, and fly off seeking nectar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why bring up a caterpillar in a book about creativity? First,\nbecause it offers such a rich metaphor, and the name \u201cimaginal discs\u201d suggests\nthat making art depends on imagination. And to prepare for its transformation,\nthe caterpillar needs to first feed itself, just as a musician or author must\nabsorb the thoughts and influences that come from songs, books, conversations,\nmemories, and observations. Many creative people seek to isolate themselves,\ncocoon-like, to escape the relentless drumbeat of popular culture so they can\nhear their own voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I noticed at an early stage was that the writers I admire\nare living a long way from the world,\u201d the author Pico Iyer told me. \u201cThe great\noriginals are originals because they\u2019re living outside the received\nconversation, outside secondhand words and secondhand ideas, to some extent\nliving in a space of their own where they\u2019re able to hear their deeper self and\ncome up with things completely outside the norm. I think that\u2019s why they really\nshake us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t that what we crave in this era of information overload:\nsongs or stories that really shake us and offer new ways of seeing the world,\nof hearing ourselves, of feeling, on a soul level, our deepest truths? That\u2019s\nwhy I\u2019ve chosen the 31 creative people in this book. They\u2019re original,\npioneering, dynamic, and insatiably curious. The authors, musicians, and others\nprofiled in these pages could coast on their earlier accomplishments, but every\none has continued to seek adventurous new avenues for igniting their creative\nspark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, seeking solitude to hear one\u2019s inner voice doesn\u2019t\nmean we should shut out those who came before us. As Iowa folk singer Greg\nBrown says, \u201cI feel links back to a time that not much is known about. Songs,\npoetry, whatever you want to call it, that urge, it just goes way, way, way\nback there. And that\u2019s a good connection to feel to life. It\u2019s hard for me to\nimagine life without that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to me (Marlene)  <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I hope you can spend 15 minutes a day (or longer, if you can) and write your story, as only you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet Michael at the launch of The Creative Spark<\/em>.
Nov 9 at 4 pm. Book Passage<\/a> in Corte Madera.\u00a0 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Shapiro\u2019s latest book is a winner. Below is an excerpt from the introduction of The Creative Spark: How musicians, writers, explorers, and other artists found their\u00a0inner fire and\u00a0followed their dreams. It reminds me of an important message for every one: We are all unique and have our stories to tell. No one else can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-bloggers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43Dj8-2fH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8661"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8665,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8661\/revisions\/8665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewritespot.us\/marlenecullenblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}