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By
David Herndon Mothers’
Day sermon 14 May 2006 First Unitarian Church Pittsburgh,
PA This
morning we celebrate Mothers’ Day. Many mothers, indeed many
parents, would be pleased and proud if their children were to
distinguish themselves in some way, perhaps through some significant
creative achievement. Not
that a child would be any more worthy of love as a result of a
significant creative achievement; but how could a parent not enjoy
seeing a child rise to the challenge of accomplishing some demanding
task, or seeing a child envision and then bring into being something
new and distinctive? Some
people assume that creativity is a gift, bestowed or withheld by some
capricious divinity. Some
people assume that creativity is random good fortune over which one has
no control. Some people assume that creativity is a personal
characteristic that one either has or has not.
Accordingly,
let us consider two personal statements from three extraordinarily
creative individuals, the composer Mozart, the mathematician Poincare,
and the painter Van Gogh. In a
letter, Mozart wrote this about his own creative process in composing
music: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and
of good cheer— say, traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good
meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions
that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. "Whence
and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them. Those ideas
that please me I retain in memory, and am accustomed, as I have been
told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon
occurs to me how I may turn this or that morsel to account, so as to
make a good dish of it, that is to say, agreeably to the rules of
counterpoint, to the peculiarities of the various instruments, etc. "All
this fires my soul, and provided I am not disturbed, my subject
enlarges itself, becomes methodized and defined, and the whole, though
it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I
can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a
glance. "Nor
do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as
it were, all at once. What a pleasing lively dream. Still
the actual hearing of the entire ensemble is after all the best.
What has been thus produced I do not easily forget, and this is perhaps
the best gift I have my Divine Maker to thank for. "When
I proceed to write down my ideas, I take out of the bag of my memory,
if I may use that phrase, what has been previously collected into it in
the way I have mentioned. For this reason the committing to paper
is done quickly enough, for everything is, as I said before, already
finished; and it rarely differs on paper from what it was in my
imagination. "At
this occupation I can therefore suffer myself to be disturbed; for
whatever may be going on around me, I write, and even talk, but only of
fowls and geese, or of Gretel and Barbel, or some such matters. "But
why my productions take from my hand that particular form and style
that makes them Mozartish, and different from the works of other
composers, is probably owing to the same cause which renders my nose so
large or so aquiline, or in short makes it Mozart’s and different from
those of other people. For I really do not study or aim at any
originality.”1 ------ The
mathematician Poincaire similarly described his own creative process in
what he called “mathematical invention.” In
what follows, you are advised to ignore the technical language and
focus on the details of how the creativity happened: “For fifteen days
I strove to prove that there would not be any functions like those I
have since called Fuchsian functions. "I was
then very ignorant; every day I seated myself at my work table, stayed
an hour or two, tried a great number of combinations and reached no
results. One evening, contrary to my custom, I drank black coffee
and could not sleep. Ideas rose in crowds; I felt them collide
until pairs interlocked, so to speak, making a stable
combination. "By
the next morning I had established the existence of a class of Fuchsian
functions, those which come from the hypergeometric series; I had only
to write out the results, which took but a few hours. . . . "Just
at this time I left Caen, where I was living, to go on a geological
excursion under the auspices of the school of mines. The changes
of travel made me forget my mathematical work. "Having
reached Coutances, we entered an omnibus to go some place or
other. "At
the moment when I put my foot on the step the idea came to me, without
anything in my former thoughts seeming to have paved the way for it,
that the transformations I had used to define the Fuchsian functions
were identical with those of non-Euclidean geometry. "I did
not verify the idea; I should hot have had time, as, upon taking my
seat in the omnibus, I went on with a conversation already commenced,
but I felt a perfect certainty. Upon my return to Caen, for
conscience’s sake I verified the result at my leisure. “Then
I turned my attention to the study of some arithmetical questions
apparently without much success and without a suspicion of any
connection with my preceding researches. "Disgusted
with my failure, I went to spend a few days at the seaside, and thought
of something else. One morning, walking on the bluff, the idea
came to me, with just the same characteristics of brevity, suddenness
and immediate certainty, that the arithmetic transformations of
indeterminate ternary quadratic forms were identical with those of
non-Euclidean geometry. “Returned
to Caen, I meditated on this result and deduced the consequences. . . .
“Most
striking at first is this appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest
sign of long, unconscious prior work. The role of this
unconscious work in mathematical invention appears to me incontestable
. . . "Often
when one works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the
first attack. Then one takes a rest, longer or shorter, and sits
down anew to the work. During the first half-hour, as before,
nothing is found, and then all of a sudden the decisive idea presents
itself to the mind. "It
might be said that the unconscious work has been more fruitful because
it has been interrupted and the rest has given back to the mind its
force and freshness. But it is more probably that this rest has
been filled out with unconscious work and that the result of this work
has afterward revealed itself to the geometer . . . “There
is another remark to be made about the conditions of this unconscious
work: it is possible . . . only . . . if it is on the one hand
preceded and on the other hand followed by a period of conscious
work. "These
sudden inspirations . . . never happened except after some days of
voluntary effort which has appeared absolutely fruitless and whence
nothing good seems to have come, where the way taken seems totally
astray. "These
efforts then have not been as sterile as one thinks; they have set
agoing the unconscious machine and without them it would not have moved
and would have produced nothing. The need for the second period
of conscious work, after the inspiration, is still easier to
understand. "It is
necessary to put in shape the results of this inspiration, to deduce
from them the immediate consequences, to arrange them, to word the
demonstrations, but above all is verification necessary.”2
"All
the same it was made under circumstances similar to those of the
others, yet the latter are just studies with less feeling and life in
them. . . . "HOW
[DOES IT HAPPEN] THAT I CAN EXPRESS SOMETHING OF THAT KIND?
Because the thing has already taken form in my mind before I start on
it. The first attempts are absolutely unbearable. "I say
this because I want you to know that if you seem something worthwhile
in what I am doing, it is not by accident but because of real intention
and purpose.”3 ----------- These
three accounts of the creative process, from Mozart, Poincaire, and Van
Gogh, appear in a book called Creative Ability Development by Alice Kay
Kanack. Kanack is a music educator who uses methods originally
developed by Shinichi Suzuki for teaching music to young
children. But
Kanack has extended Suzuki’s method to include the development of
creative ability in young children by encouraging them to learn to
improvise and compose music of their own. Kanack
is particularly intrigued by moments of inspiration when the solution
to a problem suddenly appears in the mind with an intense clarity, or
when an instance of artistic creativity fills the mind for some period
of time. Mozart,
Poincaire, and Van Gogh all testify, in different ways, to having
experienced such moments of inspiration. Kanack
defines inspiration in this way: “Inspiration, the highest point
in the creative process, occurs when the subconscious having reached a
solution to the creative problem, communicates that solution to the
conscious. "It is
characterized by a quality of sudden illumination of thought. It
will occur often without warning as a waking dream, complete or nearly
complete in form, structure, length, etc. It always occurs in the
form of an answer to the problem—not in a theoretical explanation of
how that solution was arrived at.”4 Significantly,
however, Kanack places inspiration within a process that includes
several other elements. Thus, creativity is not simply waiting
passively for inspiration to occur. It
also includes hard work, careful preparation, and, once inspiration has
occurred, putting the results of one’s creative process into a tangible
expression that can be communicated to others. For
Kanack, creativity begins with conscious work. This includes
understanding the nature of the challenge and considering various
solutions or points of view. The next step is unconscious work or
subconscious work or subliminal work. “Whence
and how [my ideas] come, I know not; nor can I force them,” said
Mozart. “The role of this unconscious work in mathematical
invention appears to me incontestable,” said Poincaire. “Because
the thing has already taken form in my mind before I start on it,” said
Van Gogh. Leonardo
da Vinci also attested to the role of the unconscious in these words
which appear at the top of your order of service: “Every now and
then go away, have a little relaxation. For when you come back to
work, your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work,
you lose power of judgment. "Go
some distance away, because then the work appears smaller, and more of
it can be taken in at a glance, and a lack of harmony or proportion is
more readily seen.” Kanack
offers this advice about maintaining a fruitful bridge between the
conscious and unconscious parts of the mind: “One of the great
challenges of teaching the creative process lies in developing trust in
the subconscious. There are two parts to this trust: One is
in understanding that each individual has some control over his
subconscious; the information which it is given by way of conscious
work will in part determine the subconscious response by way of
inspiration. "Two,
one must allow the loss of conscious control over the
subconscious. It is not possible to control and one must be
relaxed and responsive to the inspiration when it comes since it is the
only communication possible between the subconscious and conscious
parts of the brain.”5 The
final stage of the creative process is giving tangible form to
inspiration. Mozart was blessed with an amazing memory such that
even while engaged in more ordinary pursuits, he could write down on
paper what he had created in his head. ------- Poincaire
similarly stated that writing down a demonstration of his mathematical
insights was relatively straightforward. For
many others, giving tangible form to inspiration may be more laborious;
but that should not in itself be any reason for discounting the result.
What
is perhaps most helpful about Kanack’s understanding of the creative
process is her insistence that inspiration is the result of hard work
and careful preparation. Thus,
repetition, practice, self-discipline, study, effort, focus,
perseverance, patience, and attention are not to be dismissed by
someone aspiring to be creative, since they all can be essential to the
creative process. Also
helpful about Kanack’s understanding of the creative process is her
insistence that a person engaged in some creative endeavor needs to
have criticism kept to a bare minimum. She
writes: “Since creativity is essentially the art of making
choices a child must be left free to practice making choices . . . The
freedom of choice is simple to achieve by the complete removal of
criticism in the child’s creative environment.”6 Is
Kanack saying that a child (or any other creative person) should be
free from criticism in all areas of life? Absolutely
not! One may refrain from criticizing a musical composition or a
painting or a story and sill insist that a child clean up his or her
room. Kanack is referring only to an individual creative
process. Thus,
her basic formula is: Freedom of Choice + Disciplined Practice =
Creative Ability. Yet
another helpful part of Kanack’s understanding of the creative process
is her belief that creativity is a human activity. She
writes: “Since we cannot witness the subconscious process except
for its end result, we tend to give credit to a power outside of
ourselves, i.e., God. Throughout history creative geniuses in all
fields gave credit to God for their inspirations, failing to recognize
that it was their hard word which triggered the inspired thoughts. . .
. "The
idea that inspiration is a gift from God is not a surprising one, given
the qualities of sudden perfection, beauty, and emotional power that
usually accompany an inspiration. . . . "But,
whether one believes in a God or not the evidence is strong to support
the idea that inspiration comes from within the human brain, and can
only be triggered by conscious repetitive work on a creative
problem.”7 --------- This
need not deny any divine role in human creativity. The
feminist theologian Mary Daly has written: “It is the creative
potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.” Daly’s
comment opens the door to a less hierarchical understanding of
creativity, namely, the view that because human beings are capable of
creativity on their own, human beings can be co-creators with God
rather than dependent upon God as the sole source of creativity. But
that is a sermon for another day! Kanack
directs her attention toward developing creative ability in children,
but her insights can also be helpful for adults who wish to develop
their own creative ability. And
surely our world could use more creativity, more inspiration, more
imagination: and not just in music, or mathematics, or painting,
but also in architecture and medical research and municipal government,
and also in international relations and social justice and
environmental responsibility, and also in eliminating poverty and
ensuring basic human rights for all people and solving long-standing,
destructive conflicts, and also in understanding more deeply what we
truly want when we speak of a good society or a good life. In all
these diverse aspects of life, we could use more
creativity. So
make your Mom even more proud of you. Develop your creative
ability, and be more creative. Reverend David
Herndon is Minister of First Unitarian Church of
Pittsburgh. ~ ~ ~  Related
Talent Development Resources pages:Creativity
enhancement
articles Books: creativity / innovation Also see site index ~ ~ ~ |
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But I would invite us to consider another point of view,
that creativity is a talent widely distributed among human beings, a
talent which can be cultivated and developed, if one understands
something of how creativity works. 
The painter Van Gogh described his creative process to a
friend as follows: “I draw repeatedly till there is one drawing that is
different from the rest, which does not look like an ordinary study,
but . . . with more feeling.