Category: Uncategorized (Page 4 of 39)

So are we less creative as we grow older?

Or do we just know more than we did when we were younger, so we are more apt to rely on what we believe to be true and not explore new possibilities?

Or are some of us late bloomers anyway, so we hit our peaks in our 60s?

Interesting debate. I watched a TED talk with a scientist who charted when the great minds of physics came up with their breakthrough ideas. While several did so in their 20s, it wasn’t true for everyone.  In fact, because of having more resources, time and fewer responsibilities, some of the researchers did not hit their peak until after age 50.

It can be so frustrating in this youth-obsessed culture to know that you really are doing the best work you’ve ever done…but your gray hair means you don’t get chosen for the sweet assignments. Proving ourselves becomes a daily task (but isn’t it always that way, no matter our age?)

Seems the thing we boomers need to keep in mind is it’s true we’re aging, our knees are aching and some days, we run out of energy before we’d like.  But we’re also stubbornly, fiercely driven to do a good job—to fulfill that work ethic our Depression-era parents so successfully drilled in our heads. 

Creativity shows itself in many ways.  People who have the “one hit” in their lives and then fade away (or just enjoy the fruits of their success).  People who switch careers late in life so they don’t do that first painting or write that bestseller until they are well past 60. 

And then there’s the wonderful reality that most of us as we grow older stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. We take more risks in many ways, and that’s part of creativity. You walk by a funky house with plastic pink flamingos all over the yard. If it’s a young couple living there, you laugh and say that’s cool, they must be artists. 

If it’s a silver-haired man living alone, you shake your head a bit and say well, he’s probably losing his mind, but he’s harmless.

Now hang on a second…is that fair?  Is that what we do to those of us who decide to follow a different drummer as we age?  I think if you want to walk down the street with a purple plume on your head you should be able to, at 9 or 90, without people running indoors. 

Creativity is courageous.  Groundbreaking creativity is fearless.  Forget the jitters…doesn’t that have an element of fun in it?  (Younger people can’t always take those risks, they have the whole “it will be on Facebook if I do it” problem.)

 We don’t!

Buy the crazy outfit.  Paint the tree blue.  Get a blank page and write whatever you want on it.  Believe in your ability to come up with ideas, concepts, solutions, new ways to think about things. 

Someone laughing at us isn’t going to kill us.  (Boy, have learned that by now.)  Lots of very creative, very great people have been laughed at.

Let’s go for it. 

Let’s rock that wrinkle OUR way!

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” — Kurt Vonnegut

Where have I been? Why haven’t I posted in so long?

Such great questions. I owe an answer, yet I don’t think I’m the one you can ask.

Instead, ask the appliances, furnace, electrical connections, plumbing, and roof of my house. They will tell you how they all met one night under a full moon and decided to go haywire one by one, over the course of the past several months (continuing today).

Ask the gremlins that cause people I care very much about to have a disease, dementia, and other conditions that break my heart and steal my mental energy.

Ask the unpredictability of a work schedule that, even after 44 years (30 years as an independent), still can throw a wrench in the best of plans.

Not that I’m making excuses. I should still be able to turn out insight, humor, compassion, and even a little propaganda. But I confess that weariness does get the best of me sometimes.

You ever feel that way? Astonished at how tired you are? Wondering why it seems to take so much more effort to be out there than it used to? Is it our bodies, and the years behind them, that do this…or is how the world has changed and seems to take so much out of us than it once did?

So much anger. Too much fear. No clear path to higher ground.

Life is all about showing up they say. So we do. At our jobs. In our kitchens. At church. At birthday parties and graduations. We’re there, at least physically. I think a big part of us is somewhere else.

Hiking a mountain trail. Swimming in the ocean. Tossing a line into a moving stream. Watching the sun set.

And that’s okay. Because we’ve showed up a lot if we’re baby boomers and beyond. And maybe now a part of us is wanting some attention. After all, we promised our inner selves a fantastic retirement.

Yet it doesn’t seem to feel that way….shouldn’t there be something more? What is this longing that doesn’t seem to go away no matter what we accomplish?

Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue talks about longing…one that we never stop feeling. Regardless of how successful we are, how wonderful our relationships, how healthy our bank account, even just how happy we are. This longing never goes away.

As he says in his book “Eternal Echoes”….

“…Even when you achieve something that you have worked for over the years, the voice of this longing will often surface and qualify your achievement….even when you feel you have arrived, relax and let your self belong with all your heart. Then, the voice whispers and your belonging is disturbed. The voice always makes you feel as if something is missing. You are not able to name what is missing…. Something that feels vital to you lies out of your reach in the unknown. The voice comes from your soul….it confirms you as a relentless pilgrim on the earth. When you recognize that such unease is natural, it will free you….

“This eternal longing will always insist on some door remaining open somewhere in all the shelters where you belong. When you befriend this longing, it will keep you awake and alert to why you are here on earth. It will intensify your journey, but also liberate you from the need to go on many seductive but futile quests.

O’Donohue says this is a longing that can’t be satisfied on earth. We are born with it, we live with it, we leave this world with it. That may sound incredibly frustrating. But I find it a bit of a relief to know that I haven’t failed or dropped the ball just because I feel something isn’t quite complete yet.

As boomers we were raised to take pride in our work and to achieve success in as many ways as we can. That’s great. But there’s more to being alive, and these are the years to really experience as much as we can. And sometimes, that means recharging, stepping back, and dropping out for a bit.

The game isn’t over. We’re just waiting for the right time to make a play.

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” Henry Miller

10 things this boomer would like to see in 2022:

• Respect and admiration for everyone over the age of 80.

 • A ban on humidity over 40 percent.

• A loving home for every stray cat or dog. With treats, an extra bed for when their bones ache, and undivided attention from their human for at least one hour a day.

• Elimination of the cell phone ring tone that sounds like an old office phone. Please.

 •Cheese dip that makes you smarter.

• A headline that reads, “Everyone on the planet is vaccinated and hospital staffs are now working regular shifts.”

 • A cure for dementia.

  • Another headline that states, “Humans understand what they are doing to the planet and start to heal it instead.”

 •Riding in the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. (Hey, I still have a chance.)

 • A renewed appreciation for science, knowledge, reading, investigative journalism, and common sense.

One can dream, right? Novelist, essayist, environmentalist, farmer and really smart guy Wendell Berry says if we could each just heal the relationship with our neighbor, just imagine what could be.

Yes, just imagine. John Lennon did. Bishop Desmond Tutu did as well. So did Mother Theresa. Even Homer Simpson had moments of inspiration.

Happy New Year…let’s be kind to each other.

“The teachers are everywhere. What is wanted is a learner.”

Wendell Berry