A Manifesto: Getting serious about Creativity

If I really am really serious about spreading the word, about putting a stake in the ground, about proclaiming that I really mean it when I say: everyone is creative and we need that creativity in the world. It is our most squandered resource. It can save us. All the worlds problems can be laid at the door of a lack of creative imagination... 

Then I would do something about it.

I would really study what holds me back and what spurs me on.

I would discover and imagine all the ways in which we all might tap into the source of our creative selves. Not necessarily to be the great writer or painter or actor or musician, although why not, but to be simply more of who we were meant to be. To become our best selves. I would write it all down. I would send it out. I would try to open a context for others to connect with their own creative selves. I would endeavor to see that creative potential in everyone I meet, every encounter, every circumstance.

Remember Rabbi Goldberg. In his dream of dying and going to Heaven, the Patriarchs didn't ask why he hadn't lived a life more like the Saints. They asked why hadn't he lived a life more like Rabbi Goldberg.

So what's the game plan? Show up. Get to the studio everyday. Make sure something is moved toward the goal line every day. Draw something. Write something. Say something to motivate others. Talk to anyone who might be of help. Learn from others. Join with them. Identify allies. Collaborate. Put up the flag.  Write it on the wall. Let it penetrate all the work: artwork, architecture, listening, speaking, talking, doing... Being.

Never be apologetic that I believe this is the most important mission I have.

The work? An active collaboration with those who share this aspiration. Speaking on street corners as my grandfather did about the causes that he believed in the most. Trying in every way he could to change the world, make it a better place for everyone. Carry on the spirit of his wish for the world and his selfless efforts to bring it to life.

Starting now.

— Inspired by reading Can Art Save Us?
By Fred Mandell and The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield.