Posted by creativeaging on November 26, 2008
The neatly dressed woman stood quietly, waiting patiently, until almost all the other glad-handers had gone. I’d just finished a breezily-entertaining (and I hope enlightening) presentation on brain fitness and we all had enjoyed ourselves. She approached and I turned. She asked the important question: “How do we get people to try?” Try painting, she said, because painting was the greatest mental challenge she’d ever had and ever enjoyed. But if we can’t get people to try then they’ll never be able to succeed.
Great question. And I have valid fragments of an answer but no truth. How do we get people to try? Try something new. Try something challenging. Try something hard. How?
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Posted by creativeaging on March 8, 2008
Maybe we do have it all wrong. Recently I had an experience that reminded me that those basic concepts of human psychology matter. I was travelling and had to board a bus…but the bus loaded and unloaded only from one end. Therefore the first to get on had to move to the back in order to allow the other passengers on and were the last off. Savy travellers crowded near the door and the driver resorted to yelling “We aren’t going anywhere until every passenger gets on this bus, so move back!”. But in this case obeying the rules, the driver, meant the first became last and the last (or those who lingered by the door) first. So the incentive to do the right thing was lacking. And people act according to incentives and personal gain. That’s the pyschological principle I was referring to. And how does this apply to creative aging? Well since none of us want to get old, we most often avoid the subject. Perhaps if we had named this movement “Creative Living Life to Its Fullest” we’d be more successful. People want to live life to its fullest.
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Posted by creativeaging on December 6, 2007
Since our aging process begins at birth, creative aging could begin at any age. Customarily people in this field define it as occuring in the second half of life, or 50. There are many heartwarming and inspiring stories of people choosing to age creatively; I met last week a provocative example of the name of Roz, an 80 year-old woman whose feet still call her to dance and whose art is literally award-winning. More about Roz in another post because I am still in awe of another example of aging, of living creatively I read about some months ago. Her name is Carol and her forte is poetry, specifically the Japanese arts of Haiku and Tanka. What gives Carol’s story such resonance is that she is living and aging creatively in an iron-lung. Yes, Carol was struck down with polio in the 1st grade, in 1955. Since then she sees the world through the window, often only through the mirror over the head of her bed, but what a world she sees.
Her sharp knife quick
to peel, core, slice the red apple
we talk of childhood fears
how I blocked my ears
against the fair tale
This award-winning Tanka links the homely, yet violent act, of cooking, perhaps an apple-pie with those great Western Massachusetts Cortlands, with the terrors the children find so often in our world. I’ll never peel an apple again the same mindless way. Now that is the power of creativity and art. The old made new again.
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Posted by creativeaging on November 26, 2007
David Galenson writes that “many innovations spring not from their creators’ innate talent, but from their years of accumulated knowledge” (in “5 Myths about Art, Age and Genius”). That makes Galenson an advocate of creative aging in many ways since he contrasts, favorably I might add, the work of young geniuses and old masters. It seems he is thinking along the lines of Gene Cohen and his definition of creativity:
Creative Expression=(Mass of Knowledge)(Internal Life Experience*External Life Experience)
And for those of us who don’t remember algebra, Cohen explains:
When we look at all the elements and influences regarding creativity, what seems to matter most are sufficient knowledge or mastery of an area; motivation and perspiration or the willingness to do; some intangible that are part of the human condition, such as intuition and insight; and the capacity to be inspired (The Creative Age, page 38).
So Galenson’s comment “keep that in mind when you head to an art museum” may be true in even more ways than he knows.
Posted in creativity | Tagged: age, aging, art, creative aging, David Galenson, Dr. Gene Cohen, genius | No Comments »
Posted by creativeaging on November 17, 2007
NATURAL!
Why does our society fight aging so strongly?
Except for some unforeseen tragedy, we will all grow older, and (hopefully) become wiser. We will learn from our experiences and share our life lessons with children and grandchildren. As elders, we will pass down the traditions of our families. Elders are the keepers of our culture. Here in the South that’s important in many ways. Southern charm and hospitality! Keeping our culture doesn’t mean disregarding the influx of immigrants and refugees. Americans, after all, are not originally FROM America. We continue to be the melting pot of the world and what a wonderful opportunity to learn, experience, and share cultural perspectives. America could learn from other nationalities how to better treat our elders… how to revere and respect them… keep them in our communities. Aging is natural. Why do so many Americans think it is negative?
Posted in aging | Tagged: aging, America, culture, immigrants, South, youth | No Comments »
