Creativity Happens with Others

[The Creative Call – IX]

The creative call is always a call to community.

Creativity is inherently generative. Something is always made, fashioned, manifested, shaped, imagined, written, or crafted.

Creativity is fundamentally generous. At it’s core there is a spirit of giving something to others. You may get compensated, but stripped of the economic exchange, the creative call remains.

Creativity is invariably communal. It is discerned, birthed, and ultimately lives in and through relationships with others. It’s not individualistic. It can’t be because it always happens in clusters. (H/t Julia Cameron.) Consider your best ideas or the project you are most proud of. Now ask, “Who else had a hand in that?” Even if it’s only the inspiration, someone else invested in that project, and without their contribution, it would be deficient.

Creativity is generative, generous, and communal.

Consuming in isolation—or, isolating consumerism—is the antithesis of creativity.

In times like these, we need more creativity.