Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters

Last week, a personal hero of mine, Jonathan Winters, passed away. He had a long, full, complicated, crazy, and indeed, mad, mad, mad, mad, life. If you don’t know who he is or why I’d be doing a post about him in a creativity and innovation blog, please just go to YouTube and watch this. If you really want to snort milk through your nose, try this one.

Winters was a comic genius, a creative tour-de-force, and, a man who “used” his affliction with bi-polar disorder positively. He was one of the first public figures to admit to treatment for mental illness having “gone to the zoo” (as he put it) on two occasions. Thankfully, he found stability in his art.

Growing up, his Verve recordings were a model for me of using make believe to have fun, and he gave me and many of my peers the simple permission to be goofy. I could wax for hours on his talent as an entertainer, but I want to focus on his skill with improvisation.

Comedy improvisation was simply not done before JW. Comedians had set routines. He totally broke the mold, and his ability to spontaneously think and create inspired many to follow, most notably Robin Williams. He was a recognized innovator in entertainment, and he sold millions of albums and won all sorts of awards.

Here’s what we can learn from JW: Sometimes creativity isn’t about thinking, it’s about Not Thinking. As soon as you start logical-analytical processing, you essentially shut down spontaneous thought. JW learned that when somebody threw him a pen and pencil set and said “see what you can do with this” he didn’t have time to think, he had to simply react. This short-circuits the logical-analytical processor most of us live our conscious lives in.

Guess what? Your brain will give you ideas faster, and often better, if you simply allow yourself to get into the flow of what’s right in front of you. JW was the master, but we can all do this — if we practice. How do you practice? Pick up an object and start free-associating about what else it could be. What you’ll discover as you do this exercise now and then, is that your ability to just “go with anything” improves. This is not about being funny, it’s about being more self-expressed. It’s about access to your own spontaneous “thinking” generator. Yes, you have one. And by the way, JW “practiced” improv skills all the time, at the bank, while having a beer, you name it, the stories of his antics are legendary.

With this improvisational skill in hand, you’ll have better ideas,  and more ideas. It’s very simple, and, it works like mad (like mad, mad, mad, mad, mad).

Thanks Jonathan, I loved you.

**********************************************************************************************

For more information on how your organization can include spontaneous thinking in idea generation and new product development see Gregg’s Keynote speeches, training, and consulting services. For a complete front end of innovation process, see the KILN offerings. KILN’s IdeaKeg trend-centric and kinesthetic whole-brained stimulus might be the perfect vehicle for your next idea generation offsite.

For an interesting related piece on how your conscious mind can get in the way, read this Wall Street Journal article by Alison Gopnik.

Jim Eastwood, talking about potential at TEDxStormont

So, I’m talking to five beaming young people after TEDxStormont last Thursday. They’re all 20 something, glowing with energy, smiling like mad, and we’re blue streak style sharing ideas, theories, making connections –it’s a fast-paced, highly generative conversation. It occurs to me,  all at once, that moments like this — are how communities are formed.

And how prosperous futures are created.

For Northern Ireland, I think the lasting value of the event is not the content delivered, the fun experienced, or even the many videos that will eventually be posted. The lasting value is the community it created.

I won’t attempt  a comprehensive report on the event and all the speakers (I was one) but here’s a bit of background. TEDxStormont took place inside a Greek classical gem of a building, Stormont (aka The Parliament Buildings of Stormont). There were great talks given by a very diverse group that included politicians, educators, writers, journalists, motivators, piano players, singers, and rockers). If you want to get a feel for the speakers and content read Chris Kilpatrick’s Belfast Telegraph piece, or Barry Corrigan’s “Nlbcorrigan, Innovating For All” blog.)   Barry is @MrMalcontent and Chris is @C_Kilpatrick1. Suffice to say there was not a lemon in the fruit bowl. Kudos to conference organizers, especially yeowoman Eva Grosman (@evagrosman) supported by an efficient, ebullient, and very attractive crew. My favourite presentation was the singing of Gráinne Holland – that voice will haunt my dreams. Run, do not walk, and buy this woman’s debut album.

The community that came together might be a new one for Northern Ireland. It’s an amorphous demographic of the competent and curious — those dynamic people with very deliberate and fiercely burning creative fires. That’s who buys tickets to an event like TEDxStormont. Call them “cultural creatives” or simply call them: optimists, do-ers, connectors, leaders, scientists, educators, music makers, idea men, and idea women all. These are people who create, discover,  and start-up companies, charities, choirs, rock bands, and more. I wonder if there has ever been, in one place in Northern Ireland, a meeting with as many intersecting Irish Venn Diagrams. I wonder if there has ever been so much potential for imagination, creativity, and society changing innovation in one room?

For every person who bought a ticket there were at least another three who might have — had they been quicker on the draw, had they known, or had they been able to play hookey at work. If this group begins more regular interaction, and they should, trust me, the other two thirds will emerge from the woodwork.

The time is now for this new community of creatives to lead the charge in reinventing Northern Ireland. I’m not the best person to comment on The Troubles that have beset Northern Ireland. I’m an outsider, not a pure journalist, and my knowledge of the history is spotty. Still, clearly, the peace that has been achieved is only a first step. The peace agreement is a bona fide societal innovation, granted, a very good start. The next step has got to be taking the treasure trove of talent in the region and purposing it towards invention. And I mean invention in the broadest sense.

Prosperity and jobs will result if this is done —  and this is how, in my view, The Troubles will be put to rest permanently. It’s about creating something new from whole cloth.  That’s why this new community is so critical — these are the people with one thing in mind — creating something. And this is desperately needed  here. The passion to create transcends political, personal, cultural, and religious differences — but it has to be unleashed. And the creation community needs to organize and  support itself.

As President Clinton once said “it’s about the economy stupid.”

How might this new community move forward? Someone needs to step up and lead.

Back to that blue streak conversation I mentioned above — I’d just finished telling Phil Murray (@philmurray17) and Jonny Elliott (@jelliott1989) and their posse just how important it is to simply start up something that makes money. Sorry, it’s just like me to focus on that mundane stuff when something much more profound was happening. Still, correct me if I’m wrong, but a successful start-up , and the jobs that come with it, could be what keeps NI young talent from going permanently to London, or Germany,  or America. It’s up to guys like Phil and Jonny to create things, but they need support — support from the community. How might that be done? A few ideas, mine alone, and please, load up the cross-bow and fire when ready:

1. This community needs to meet and communicate at least monthly in person to have syncronicity occur. The goals are deliberate networking, idea exploration, concept pitching, and project/company creation.
2. The government should not be the organiser of the community. We don’t want this caught up in politics in any fashion. This group must be seen as being about creativity and innovation, and anyone who digs that stuff can get involved. Leave your gang colors at home.
3. Between meetings communication would be done using social media, this has already started, but it needs to be formalised.
4. The community should raise money from its own members and award small batches of funds at monthly pitch meetings (see the Detroit Soup model and adapt it). The monthly meeting is a pizza dinner (or something) and the entrance fees are used to fund small entrepreneurial or artistic projects.

This community needs to meet, interact, learn, have fun, and support each others efforts. This will all happen with a bit of leadership and light-handed facilitation. This doesn’t require a lot of money, but it would take energy.

So, who’s going to step up?

Imagination Segmentation (Gregg Fraley, 2013)

I’ve been preparing a new keynote speech on Imagination and it’s been a real challenge to get my thoughts together on such a big and creatively important concept. My focus is usually on Creativity. To be honest I’m enthralled with the concept of imagination, and yet have avoided talking about it directly because it’s so individual and amorphous. That’s why I’m so excited about one aspect of my new talk I wanted to share it with my readers right away, so here it is, my “Johari Window” of Imagination (note to self: need better label). It’s helpful in getting a handle on who imagines and how, and might be helpful to individuals and groups who seek to improve imaginative capacity.

One way to look at Imagination is along two dimensions: Awareness and Intention.

My assumptions:  Everyone has imaginative capacity, and, everyone can invoke it if and when they wish to. I assume that nearly everyone has some imaginative thoughts, and I assume that everyone, at some point in time, tries to make use of their imagination. However, many folks have a low awareness of the steam of imaginative thoughts flowing through their minds. Many folks also rarely ask their own minds for imaginative thoughts (be they visuals, words, or sounds).

I’m not talking about imaginative effectiveness. That’s a whole other blog post. It’s not so easy to improve one’s awareness of imaginative thoughts, but it can be done. It’s also not so easy at all to deliberately use imagination to solve problems, but again, there are ways to get better. So, more on effectiveness later. My two dimensional view has to do with segmentation of who’s aware and who’s not, and who’s using, and who’s not using, their imagination.

I think this is where it all starts.

It breaks down into four groups which I’m calling: Zombies, Dreamers, Managers, and Leaders.

Zombies, God bless them, are people who are unaware of their imaginative thoughts and never or rarely call their mind for any. These would not be good employees, for they are walking around in a stupor. They might be in survival mode and too busy to relax, listen, or proactively imagine. I would think they’d be poor problem solvers and might be, frankly, lazy.  Wake them up and you might have something. Awareness can be developed by meditation, yoga, walking and other “centering” sorts of behaviours. Start there!

Dreamers are tuned into their imaginations. They like to be there in their head and they notice their dreams, visions, and images. They don’t have to invoke their imaginations much because they are happy riding the unfocused waves of imaginative thoughts they already have. However, because they don’t focus their imagination on any particular problem or challenge, they miss opportunities for real world creativity. Dreamers improve by taking real world action, and, by calling for imaginative ideas focused on challenges in front of them.

Managers try to come up with imaginative ideas, they desire to be problem solvers, but because they are not connected to their core thought streams, tend to lack big picture visions. They are focused on action and sometimes this focus keeps them from accessing deeper or more high level ideas buried in the subconscious. They would do well to develop more awareness, and, ask their minds for bigger, broader images that move beyond their challenges and to the challenges of others.

Leaders, and they don’t always lead people directly, are both aware of their imagination, and, make deliberate use of it. Because they are centred and aware, and because they practice the skill of imagination, they are probably the most creatively effective Imagineers of the four segments.

Would love to hear thoughts about this. Kindest vibes flowing out to all ya’all.

Imagination is a revered idea isn’t it? Everybody seems to want it. And yet…

• Who actually sets aside time to imagine?
• Is it focused or completely not, or both?
• Who tolerates the imagination of others when it’s expressed?
• Who and how often do people actually take action on some dream?

John Lennon practically has trademarked the word, but I find his song quite challenging.

“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky…imagine all the people living for today…yohooo”

I find this very difficult to imagine, not at all easy. And my vision of children running through a meadow of cone flowers, does that help people, now, live for today? And who can sing that yohoo part and get away with it except John Lennon?

Don’t get me wrong — I am one of the worlds biggest dreamers. As a child I was so dizzy in my dream world that I lost my shoes on the way to school. Dreaming often means humiliation. So, tell me dear readers, how does one go about making imagination useful?

And what about our brothers and sisters who have lost their imagination? What can they do?

And should we care?

I have my ideas about this, but I want to hear yours. Please, tell me why anyone should Imagine?

But ultimately creative tools and techniques won’t make you “more creative.” They’ll make you more creatively effective, and there’s a difference. Becoming more creative means you change who you are and how you are being, core creative improvement, really, requires personal transformation. The good news, it’s possible. The bad news, it’s quite challenging. Being more creatively effective is a good thing, but it’s a relatively easy change compared to creative transformation.

Creativity is in each of us, that’s a given. We all have creative capacity. Still, without self-expression, without a sense of that force within us, all the tools and techniques in the world are window dressing.

Creativity is an integral part of who we are as human beings, it’s a lot more than Post-It Note brainstorming. Imagination, a creative product, is what makes us different from very smart Dolphins. Not that I know what a Dolphin might imagine, they might have a very rich imaginative life. But a Dolphin has very few outlets for that imagination, whereas humans have endless outlets for self-expression, and also endless outlets for creative suppression.

If you want to be more creative from the core of who you are, it requires changing how you think and behave. That’s why creative transformation is difficult, it’s changing very fundamental things. As my hero and creativity mentor Sid Parnes once said, Deferred Judgment is not just something you do when in the divergent phase of brainstorming, deferred judgment is a way of life. Imagine if you will…

• that you start listening with an ear for what is possible instead of what’s wrong
• that you treat your ideas and the ideas of others with respect, care, and thoughtfulness
• that you are able to distance yourself from the constant stream of critical judgement running through your head

If you could really integrate those three things into your thinking and life, would life be different? I think it would, and that “creative transformation” is a core-level change in who you are that will make you, indeed, more creative. Massively more creative. Combine that way of being with Tools and you are more creative AND more creatively effective. Is it easy to defer judgment as a way of life? Trust me on this, no, but one can make strides in ones journey. Deferral of Judgment is only one of the essential behaviours of a truly actualized creative person. The related concept of Tolerance for Ambiguity is another, but that’s a post for another day.

And yes, dear results-oriented business readers, being more creative and more creatively effective is THE foundational piece for innovation.

I guess there is an innovation equivalent to a drunk hitting bottom. If only the drunk could see where they are headed — maybe they could avoid the hard fall into the gutter.

Case in point: General Motors. GM hit bottom, and, the good news, they’re in recovery.

As an owner of General Motors, I’m feeling pretty good about their progress. GM is now innovating. The fighter that was at 9 in the ten count is up and battling again.

I say I’m an owner, and in two ways: 1.) as an American tax payer who helped bail them out, and 2.) stock in my retirement IRA. I care if GM innovates!

The most positive signal for me is not that they are finally making money (and, that’s good.) The signal is, at last, once again, they are making exciting cars. Both the new Corvette and the new Cadillac ATS have crossed bridges in design and they reconnect GM to their core story of sexy, romantic cars. Yes, romance. A good car, well, you have a relationship with it — and it’s a life long one.

Americans of a certain age grew up seeing the Corvette as the hippest possible sports car and the Cadillac as what you’d aspire to when you made the grade. As a 10 year old caddy at the country club I’d see those big tail fins pull into the lot, and it just screamed luxury. My favorite golfer, Jack Wood, had a white Sting Ray with a special horn we’d always beg him to sound. I briefly owned a Chevy Malibu — and I loved that car, wish I still had it! These are memories that stick. One could write a book on the joy of a fun and cool car, and, it’s innovation that creates those memories and that joy.

These brands got a bit dusty over the years. As a huge company GM lost it’s focus, and seemed to design by committee. All its cars seemed to end up looking like a box, and frankly, they were boring, unmemorable cars. It’s a sad truth that it often takes a drastic emergency to get an organization into more active innovation. Most companies would have died as a result of the inattention to innovation. GM got a bit lucky. At GM, in the past, I think it would be fair to say it was a leadership problem. Clearly, they had the resources to innovate. What they didn’t have was the vision, and the focus, on creating exciting and useful new products.

The lesson here is not to wait until you’re bankrupt to innovate. It’s a simple point but profoundly difficult for some organizations to do. It’s a culture thing. If the culture doesn’t encourage and implement exciting innovation, they are that drunk headed for the gutter. Is that your organization? Take steps, and drastic ones, now, if that’s the case. Start with training.

It’s hard to get a peek behind the curtain at GM. I’ve tried to reach their R&D center to talk to someone, but without an introduction I’m not getting through their front desk. Still, if you look from the outside, it’s evident that there is a new focus on information technology (both internal business ops and with the vehicles), and a re-committment to excellence in design. Whatever they’re doing, I hope they keep it up. If anyone from GM reads this would love to talk to you directly.

For GM to continue on its path back it needs to make innovation process spin faster, and, leadership needs to take more risks. What’s happening now is a good start.

Welcome back GM.

Car of the year winner, Cadillac ATS

Amy Kaherl is the Director/Facilitator of Detroit Soup

As a Michigander I’m always looking for some good vibes on the economy. I found it last night on NBC Nightly News, an inspirational story about Detroit Soup. 

It’s not a restaurant, but it does serve soup — and something a lot more precious for down-on-its-luck-Motown — hope.

Here’s the concept: Detroit Soup is a monthly dinner to fund creative and entrepreneurial projects. Micro grants are awarded at the dinner. Five dollars ($5.00) is the entry fee and it gets you a simple meal — soup, salad, bread — and a vote. They hold the dinner in an old warehouse. Click over to their site and read their backstory, it’s interesting.

Apparently this concept has been happening for over three years.

Why I like Detroit Soup:

1. It’s simple, there are no arcane hoops to jump through for those seeking grants, you share a proposal and get feedback, and maybe a grant
2. It develops the entrepreneurial/creative community and encourages young people to stay in Detroit
3. It educates the community about possibilities, and about what might be done. It’s an inspiration for others,  and a springboard for further ideation re: creative projects
4. It rewards creative and innovative ideas immediately and gets projects off the drawing board and into real world action
5. It fosters innovation. Small projects is where big things start
6. Most of all it’s a Hope Generator. Detroit (and all of Michigan) needs more hope and being able to Do Something, even if it’s a small project, is how the hope rubber meets the change-the-city road.

This is not a charity, it’s a crowd-funding kind of incubator, thing. Contribute to them if you can. You can find them on Twitter, or on Facebook. 

Michael Flannery was a comedy peer of mine back in the day.

I’m in Cincinnati visiting for Christmas and coincidentally have been invited to the First Annual Cincinnati Comedians Homecoming Show. I’ll be going to Funny Bone Newport, KY tonight and hope to see a few of my old colleagues from the early 80′s, back when I was doing stand-up. People often ask me what doing stand-up was like, so, here’s the story, but with a twist. I’m going to relate it to starting anything creatively challenging.

In the late 70′s and early 80′s comedy went from a somewhat quaint and staid art practiced mostly in the Catskills and New York City to something more akin to rock and roll. The influence of Saturday Night Live and the late, great, seminal comics George Carlin and Richard Pryor had clubs sprouting in all major cities. Growing up, I’d been the class clown, could do some impressions, and had informally studied stand up, so, I thought, I’d be a natural, it would be easy. I decided to give it a try.

My Hero, George Carlin

My first few performances were, to say the least, unsuccessful. Frankly, they were humiliating, I was sooo bad. What I thought was funny was clearly not according to my audience. I was booed, heckled, and at least once yanked off stage. My ego took a major hit. I tried various things to improve, but it was so bad I was, for a time, banned from the main venue of the day in Cincy, the DWI. I worked other clubs and tried writing material which I found nearly impossible — staring at a blank page in my typewriter. I didn’t know what I was doing and was swimming in self-doubt, fear, anxiety, and — excitement. It drove me to drink, and yet I was obsessed by the challenge.

Friends advised me to quit, they didn’t want to see me embarasing myself. It was worse than I thought even. One night I pushed record on my cassette tape deck and caught some “friends” whispering about my act. Mercy, it was brutal to hear their cutting remarks. But it was a gift — I was faced with the reality I had to change everything if I was going to be any good at all.

I did consider quitting, but for some masochistic reason I didn’t. I rethought what was funny. I looked at everything with a new set of eyes (could this be material? is this funny? what aren’t people noticing?) I started doing something radical — telling the unvarnished truth. Things started to work. I also tried to get away from jokes and instead leverage my natural goofiness. I had a bit of a breakthrough when I did a parody of the Patty Duke theme song. My first successful night. My material went from trite to, frankly, a bit sick, but at least it was authentically sick AND funny. I was never a great standup, but I did achieve a sort of respectability. I did a few good video bits on Warner Cable. My peers gave me some grudging respect. When I got to that level, I quit, but with my head held high.

So, the life lesson in all this? Doing creative things can be very, very difficult, and emotionally crushing, particularly at the start when it is likely you are going to be Bad. When I think of the nerves, stage fright, and then humiliation when I “died like the Hindenberg” — I wonder why I put myself through it.  When you try to do something really new and different some of your friends will advise you to stop, quit, be reasonable, be smart — and it will really feel like they are right. They’re not, there is a big payoff to this suffering.

The payoff to starting in on the difficult creative journey of a whole new thing is, holy cow, will you ever learn fast. You’ll learn about yourself, you’ll learn about your content, topic or area of interest, you’ll learn what the market wants, and you’ll learn process. Then there are those around you — you’ll learn who supports you in your creativity and who would prefer you stay the same so they can be more secure. It’s good to know who wants you to Stay in-the-box.

By the way, all this applies, in spades, to innovation in start-ups and big organizations.

The things I learned from my brief stint in stand-up I’m still using today? I learned that if you’re not interesting in the first six seconds you’ll lose your audience. I learned that surprises are essential to speaking. I learned that confidence and commitment to your message are essential. I learned that imaginative stories are the vehicle for being compelling. I also learned that being nervous is a good thing because energy is Everything in public speaking.

So, it’s nearly 2013 and many of us want to start something creatively new in the new year. I urge you to jump on that horse and ride — you will learn like mad. Don’t listen to the naysayers. And prepare for very rough trails. But oh, at the end of the day, I promise, they will be Happy Trails!

No, this is not a blog about innovation. I would like to share an idea. If it resonates, please pass this along.

Like nearly everyone I’m working through complex emotions related to yesterday’s events in Newtown, Connecticut. The sad truth for me is that I’m not shocked. This kind of event has become normal. Death by gunfire is an everyday thing in America. As an American I am simply ashamed.

My mind is flooded with memories of countless assassinations and other insane killings of my lifetime. JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Kent State, John Lennon, Columbine, Gabby Gifford — and so many more. As the years have gone by I have lost my ability to be shocked.

We cry about those children, but really, we should cry all the time — this is an everyday thing. Only these multiple death ones make the news. After each event like this there is new resolve to do something about gun laws, and I hope something does happen, but to be honest, I think it’s unlikely. As the shock wears off the NRA lobbying dollars kick in.

I was thinking very early this morning, unable to sleep, about Why? An image of my grandmother, Regina Fraley, came to me and she whispered “lost souls” in my ear.

One day, 54 years ago, Regina took me with her on a shopping trip. She wore a pink dress and white gloves. She smelled like fancy soap. We passed a bum in the street who begged for some change. She opened her purse and gave him some and spent a few minutes talking to the man. This didn’t surprise me, Regina talked to everybody, even the garbage man. The bum looked up at us, his eyes, dead before, lit up. As we were walking away she shook her head and said “that poor man is a lost soul.” She said it with kindness, with empathy. I didn’t ask her what she meant. I knew what she meant. That person didn’t have a home, didn’t have a family, had nobody to talk to, and didn’t have someone to look after him. He was lost. I was four years old at the time and I understood.

We all understand — but we’ve trained ourselves to ignore people.

I’m not a psychologist. I am a human being. It occurs to me that the common denominator in many of these crazy incidents is that the shooters are lost souls. People that have fallen through the cracks of society. People who have been squashed by the trials of life and have nowhere to turn. People who aren’t looked after or even much talked to. People who are quite simply unloved and forgotten.

If you have anger, sorrow, sadness, or frustration related to yesterdays shooting, why not do something about it now?

Why not reach out for a lost soul?

Today.  Let’s see if we can reel a few lost souls back in.

Search through your mental Roladex. Who is that person, that loner, you’ve chosen to ignore? Who is that human being you pass everyday but are loathe to engage with? We routinely ignore people who are troublesome, argumentative, boring, or stupid. Aren’t they the ones who need us the most?

One of those difficult people, somewhere, is desperate, right now, for someone to talk to. He hasn’t gone over the edge yet, that happens tomorrow.

It might be a family member. That nephew with the Mohawk that the whole family thinks is weird. It might be the doorman at your building, the one with bad breath. It might be the woman who cleans your house who always wants to talk rubbish.

Lost souls, ignored and unloved people, are all around us. If you want to prevent a tragedy, talk to a lost soul — someone who needs attention, a human connection, a bit of looking after, yes, love.

If we’re very lucky we’ll get a new gun law in 3 years.

You can love somebody who needs it today.

The simple point of this post is that creativity is not just for the good times. In fact, when you have the blues it might be an opportune time to create something.

A nurse in London committed suicide last week. Why? We’ll never know the details but ostensibly she did it because she was so ashamed. Her crime? She was fooled by some pranking Aussie DeeJays into revealing private medical data of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge. It’s such a sad story. The nurse, not a native English speaker, was easily fooled, and was apparently so upset she made this mistake she took her own life. A hard working mother of two teenagers. One should never doubt that human beings are quite vulnerable, let this be a lesson to us all to treat everyone we know with kindness. Pranks can have unintended consequences, as can hurtful remarks. I don’t blame the deejays, but surely, there must have been something she could have done to lighten her spirits and remain alive.

If someone is clinically depressed or not able to think at all, I’m not saying creative self-expression is a cure for that, but if you are just blue…well…

I think at least one answer in instances where we feel we’ve made a mistake, or, when life circumstances deal us a crap hand, is to turn our hearts and minds to some creative work. This is the perfect time to write, paint, make some music, or dance. Even time to re-double our efforts in our work. I find it rather easy to “visionize” a future when I want to forget the present!

This is when a relationship to the arts becomes a huge asset. But if you’re not artistic, there are other ways to self express. Talk to others. Appreciate simple things like food and drink, even the brisk air of a winter morning. Get into your work with a new determination to do something better, and feel better when you accomplish that.

When you’re blue, creative self-expression is not just solace, it’s an opportunity to create something that comes directly from your heart. We’re sometimes more in touch with who we are and what our values are when we are blue. Use the emotion, let it take you to the truth, to new heights of self-expression, in whatever it is you do.

Personally, these last few weeks have seen cancer take an old high school buddy, the sister of a very good friend, and the wife of a boyhood friend. The high school friend was a guy who had a wicked sense of humour I long admired and enjoyed — he will be sorely missed. Closer to home I’m making some big changes myself, and, without disclosing too much, it’s a major milestone and one I would have preferred not to cross. It feels like it’s raining sadness.

But you know something? I’m alive, I’m still rolling, and still able to create. I’m a battered 53 Chevy, but I’ve got some miles, and some creative work left in me. Maybe even my best work. So while it may be a blue Monday, a funky stormy Monday, I’m determined to write, draw, sing, and dance. And help others do the same.

Creativity, for those who choose it, is not just for good times. It’s also for those blue times. Call it Blue Creativity. If the blues have got you down, swim in it, use it, change it from a wail of woe to a song of joy.

Much love in this holiday season to all my readers.