CRAYONS & CREATIVITY

Craft Still Life, Jamestown, NC
Crayola Presence, Jamestown, NC

I stumbled across a comment recently that noted the author had only just regained the creativity he had as a child using a box of crayons. The crayons had been replaced with books on history and algebra and being responsible and earning a paycheck and paying his bills and obeying all the traffic signs and saving for retirement and exercising and eating healthy and he wanted his crayons back. I actually remember going through that stage with the introduction of coloring books. The new goal was to stay within the lines and “create” a colorful picture. I now know that it was a great way to keep me occupied and generally out of trouble in the long dog days of summer vacation. But it still did teach me the discipline of doing a good job and the persistence of seeing it through to the end. I recall looking at a lot of unfinished pages that were started by some of my young nonconformist peers including erratic crayon marks that were defiantly way outside the lines! Even then we were all seeking our own paths in life.

As with most things in life, there always seems to be a need for balance. We can be left brain creative as long as we have the common sense to also employ the right brain discipline to pay our bills for the craft materials on time. Or perhaps at least have the sense to employ a right brain who will do it for us! And being totally right brain focused leaves a lot of room to let our hair down on occasion. I remember the story of a young girl that was busily working on a blank page with her box of crayons. As the teacher walked around the classroom monitoring the children, she asked the girl what she was coloring. She told the teacher that she was creating a picture of God. When the adult teacher told her that no one knows what God looks like, the young girl quickly responded, “Well, stick around for a few more minutes and they will”! (I asked a young girl if she would create a picture of God for me and without hesitation she quickly used her crayons to produce the image above).

The young girl was unencumbered by all the filters and biases that we adults accumulate as we muddle through life. No one had told her that God couldn’t be pictured so she didn’t know it couldn’t be done and her creative mind knew exactly how God should look. We adults need to be reminded of this, especially those of us who have seen many moons and many seasons and accumulated lots of baggage along the way. Perhaps we simply need to start with another blank canvas when life gets boring and open that creative box of crayons that’s still tucked away in our left brain to re-energize our life once again!

This blog has manifested into my box of Crayolas with an endless supply of colors!