Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 5 — January 25,1973
C reati vity
SR. JANAAN MANTERNACH, OSF
Creativity is something that is very easily applauded in others
and just as easily denied in ourselves. All too often people
bemoan, “I’m not a very creative person.” For somee reason
creativity seems so readily overlooked in oneself that many of
us come to believe we lack creativity.
I have heard myself along with friends and relatives
comfortably scoot around the world with modest phrases like
“I’m having fun.” This may really mean carving a watermelon
basket for a picnic dessert or working on dried flower
arrangements in late spring to be used as Christmas gifts. It may
mean, “adding a personal touch,” which translates into a short
“I love you” note tucked into a husband’s lunch, or a small toy
tucked into a youngster’s lunch box on his birthday.
How many happy surprises have evolved from “oh, it’s
nothing -- I just used what I found in the refrigerator.”
Substitute deskdrawer, cupboard, pantry, sewing-basket,
workshop, or toybox for refrigerator and the thought is the
same. Combine ingenuity, resourcefulness, and cleverness with
love and hard work and you have creativity - a special and
unique expression of oneself.
Our children provide us with a good study of how universal a
human trait creative imagination and action really is. Children
express themselves with an astonishing degree of creative
imagination and activity.
Having no playmates one afternoon does not prevent a
youngster from begging for a few extra minutes before coming
in to eat. All that’s visible to Mom or an onlooker at first, is a
boy, a ball, a glove, and a pitchback device; but on closer
investigation it is revealed that there is a man on second, a man
on third, and two outs. Anyone who understands can safely
assume that winning or losing depends upon the man at bat.
Once again something very alive has been created out of a few
inanimate props.
The equipment necessary for such a trip is another challenge.
Often it is created out of transformable objects like the
cardboard tube found in the middle of a roll of paper towels,
some toothpicks, a ball of string, and a host of what are termed
by the untrained eyes as “odds and ends from the toybox.”
Imitation is often a springboard for creativity and is necessary
for growth. When a child has enjoyed a glass of Tang and then
decides to be an astronaut, often there follows an exercise in
creative problem solving. The challenge to the child’s and mom’s
or dad’s ingenuity, resourcefulness, and cleverness might be that
of attaching a globe or a map to the curtain rod so that laying
on the floor simulates the view of the earth from far out in
space.
Unfortunately many of us, as we become adults, allow this
creative capacity to become dulled. We become so much the
creature of routine, monotony, self-questioning, fear of
embarrassment, that we actually come to believe that we are not
creative persons. As a result we become uncreative. We allow
our creativity to atrophy.
This in unfortunate for ourselves and for those with whom
we live. It is doubly unfortunate for today’s world of complex,
changing challenges. Solutions to societies most pressing
problems require creative imagination even more than
technological skill. Resolutions of family problems, of school
problems, or job problems, or personal problems - all rest in
large part of creativity and imagination.
Life as work of art is an ode to creativity. It is a real pleasure
to make and to make beautifully is a real job! Creativity seems
to thrive in an atmosphere where the main ingredient is freedom
combined with expectancy, surprise, delight, and desire to both
give and communicate meaning or to discover something new.
God created out of nothing. We are not God so we create out
of something -- the something that he basically created. We, in
our creativity, participate in the creative activity of God, as well
as provide ourselves with the experience needed to grasp
something of the meaning of God’s creative act. Doing this, we
become cocreators with God of a world in which it will be easier
for people to love one another.
Love and God’s
BY FATHER QUENTIN QUESNELL, S.J.
“In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” Something
- instead of nothing. A world -- in place of emptiness. There it is
-- the act which most belongs to God alone. From Him
everything comes. He is the one who fills all emptiness. He calls
the things that are not -- and they begin to be.
God makes the world to be, and he does so in one eternal act
of love. The world exists, because he loves. It exists because
God wants to pour himself out generously.
“A TINY FLOWER pushes its way through to the
sun. . .” The hostile environment of a roadside cannot
quell the growth of flowers. (NC Photo by Algimantas
Kezy, S.J.)
“HAVING NO PLAYMATES one afternoon does minutes before coming in to eat.” His imagination plays basketball alone at a rundown playground. (NC
not prevent a youngster from begging for a few extra providing the competition, a boy gives his all as he Photo by Robert L. Miller)
Fostering Creativity in Young Children
BY FATHER CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
Jerry had found an unusual piece of broken glass. As he
turned it around to examine it he noticed that light passed
through this glass in a curious way. The rays seemed to narrow
to a bright point of light on the concrete garage floor.
He then moved the glass so that the point of light fell on his
hand. Soon he noticed the spot on his hand felt warm. Jerry had
an idea. He went outside the garage and found some dried up
leaves. He placed one of the leaves on the garage floor and
carefully focused the spot of light on the leaf. Nothing
happened.
So he took another leaf, moved the glass around until he
seemed to have a brighter spot of light. Patiently he held the
glass still until small whispers of smoke began to rise from the
dried leaf. Sparks appeared. Then there was just a burned out
hole in the leaf.
Jerry was intrigued. He stretched out on the garage floor and
tried another leaf. After about twenty minutes of
experimenting, he was able to start a small fire of leaves and
dried brush.
Creative Power
Many parts of his creation have received from Him the gift of
being themselves creative. Thus life comes from life, “each seed
and plant according to its own kind;” for to each He said;
“Increase and multiply -- fill the seas and the earth and the air.”
We are the part of His creation with the special gift of
knowing we were created. We alone, among all the eye can see,
can appreciate what marvels He has done. “The heavens declare
the glory of God.” But to whom do they declare it, except to
us? “The firmament proclaims His handiwork.” But to whom
would the firmament proclaim, if we were not there?
We are also the part of His creation with the special gift of
knowing we can be ourselves creative. Through us he keeps
making the world what he wants it to become. “The world itself
will be freed from its slavery to corruption, and will share the
glorious freedom of the sons of God.” Because we have not
been using it as we should, “all creation groans and is in agony
even until now” (Romans 8).
Our share in his creative powers flashes forth in every bright
idea, work of art, project, inspiration of ours; in every beautiful
action well done or life well lived; in any of the many ways we
can conceive, plan, accomplish, perfect. “Wisdom is a breath of
the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the
Almighty” (Wisdom 7,25).
But his creative power is above all else a power of generous
love. He wants us to continue his creation and renew it. The
persons we love grow into new and better selves because
somebody loves them. They become more beautiful, happier,
stronger, kinder and more holy because and to the extent that
we love. Each act of loving is a new creation.
A very special Christian creative action is forgiveness, after
the model of God. St. Thomas Aquinas argues at great length
and very convincingly that God’s turning a sinner into a just
man is his greatest and the most truly creative work. It is a more
impressive production than calling the whole world into being.
God does it by the power of his forgiving love. He invites us too
to share in this kind of creating, and see the marvelous effects
that it can have.
There was sin. There was the broken bond between persons.
There was coldness at the heart and emptiness. Or there was the
destructive and self-consuming fire of bitterness, anger or hate.
An act of forgiveness is a new creation. With a word of
acceptance, life springs forth. A tiny flower pushes its way
through to the sun and the sky from out of cinders and slag, the
frozen lava of a dead volcano. “Forgive one another as God has
forgiven you.”
As I quietly watched Jerry intently experimenting with the
power he had discovered, my mind travelled back over hundreds
of centuries. I imagined the excitement when some inquisitive,
creative human kindled the first man-made fire.
Jerry’s creativity symbolized for me one of man’s most
valuable traits, the ability to be creative. Fostering creativity is
one of the most important aspects of all education, and in a
special way of religious education. Unfortunately there is in
most schools, according to educational critics, very little
training in creativity as it is related to life’s real problems and
issues. There is instead an overemphasis on learning and
memorizing facts in order to think about problems for which
answers have already been discovered.
Yet as Albert Einstein once stated, imagination is more
important than knowledge. In today’s world it is becoming
clearer that most serious personal and social problems can be
resolved only with creativity and imagination. Good will, hard
work, accurate factual knowledge, and technological skill are
needed, but they are not enough. Research is vital, but how to
direct the research and what to do with its results are questions
of creative imagination. Broken glass, sunlight, and leaves were
abundant in Jerry’s life long before he put the three together to
light a fire.
For the Christian there is even greater reason to encourage
creativity. Jerry’s creative act suggests the meaning of the
bibical affirmation that man is made in God’s image and likeness
(Gen. 1:28). Creatively developing the world’s resources for the
betterment of mankind is man’s way of continuing and sharing
in God’s creative activity. The creative Spirit of God is at work
in the spirits of men and women who work to improve the
human condition through creative activity of all kinds (cf. Vat.
II, Church in World, 34).
Many parishes are, in my opinion, but a few hours away from
providing Sunday liturgies which powerfully integrate the music
sung or heard and the word preached or proclaimed.
In simpler terms: if the organist-choir director knows a week
or more in advance the topic or central theme the priest will
treat in his homily, then that leader of music can attempt to
underscore the message with appropriate songs. To illustrate:
In September, my partner at Holy Family, the two nuns who
serve as parish helpers, our talented part-time organist-musical
director and I sat down for a several-hour planning session. With
lectionaries in hand, we began to determine what would be the
basic idea for Masses on each Sunday during the next two
months. This creative process, we know, leaves us tired and
drained, but has proven extremely productive and absolutely
necessary.
After looking at the attractive “Respect Life!” booklet
prepared by the Washington staffs for our American bishops, we
decided to set aside all the Sundays in October for an
examination of life under its various aspects. One week the
liturgy would cover life in general with special consideration for
the unborn. On other Sundays we would treat youth, the
family, politics and peace, the poor. Perhaps the most potent of
these Masses turned out to be the celebrations which centered
attention on the elderly.
Through the group decision-making procedure, we selected a
Sunday in October on which the assigned biblical texts seemed
most appropriate for a discussion of the aged. In this instance,
the first reading (Isaias) and the gospel passage spoke about the
heavenly banquet. The Old Testament excerpt further predicted
“God will destroy death forever, and wipe away the tears from
all faces.” The second reading from St. Paul had a
thinking-back, grateful remembrance tone to it.
The homilist (spending his usual 5 hours in immediate
» t
It is imperative that Christian educators enable people to
recognize God’s call to creatively develop things for the benefit
of others - be it in the kitchen, factory, laboratory, office or
studio. Perhaps more than ever before contemporary life
requires Christians whose approach to reality is marked by
creative imagination, infused with courage and hope.
Parents and teachers can encourage creativity and imagination
in a number of ways - many techniques are described in more
recent religion texts. Perhaps one of the most basic
approaches is to focus on questions rather than answers, on
challenges rather than solutions. Each true answer to any deep
question about life actually rises further questions, gradually
penetrating deeper into the mystery of life. To help people
pursue issues more deeply, more searchingly is a major step
toward education in creativity.
Genuine questions and challenges may be explored through
creative writing, drawing, photography, role-playing, and similar
activites. All too often youngsters and adults in religious
education programs are simply lectured to. Their creativity is
neither challenged nor freed. As a result they and the world fail
to discover the rich creative resources lying dormant and
untapped in so many persons young and old.
A parent or teacher can encourage a climate of informality,
of freedom for all to participate, a sense of expectation and
exploration, and a feeling of trust. Then the creative impulse,
spontaneously exercised in play by Jerry and most children,
may be encouraged. This can do much to help the learners hear
God’s call to creatively develop things for their own good and
the good of others.
preparation for preaching at all of our Masses) worked up three
points: older people should with joy rejoice over the glorious
future ahead, reflect happily with pride and satisfaction upon
their past, and live fully in the present.
The two nuns found a large poster featuring an elderly
couple, mounted it on a cork board with fall decorations as
background and placed this in front of the altar.
Our choir director-organist likewise fashioned the day’s
musical program around this theme. It included traditional
entrance and recessional hymns with an antiquity motif (“Faith
of our Fathers”, “0 God Our Help in Ages Past”). While the
gifts were gathered, the choir and congregation (the latter not
very strongly) sang “Try to Remember,” underscoring the
homily’s reflective motion.
Because a large percentage of parishioners have roots in
Sicily, the organist played as part of Communion background
music, “Return to Sorrento.” For a thanksgiving piece, choir
and community sang the familiar Latin hymn, “0 Sanctissima”
(October and our Lady plus the nostalgic effect for older
persons of what used to be).
In addition, the entrance comments, penitential rite (form C
tailored to the occasion), introductions to the readings, general
intercessions, observations between the prayer over the gifts and
preface as well as the final remarks alluded in various ways to
the elderly.
“To look forward with confidence to the heavenly banquet,
to look back with happiness upon our past, to live the present
moment fully - this is today’s message for the senior citizen, the
middle age individual, the young person.” Those concluding
words summarized the Mass’s theme and sent the congregation
out to love and serve the Lord.
Some did so in a special way. One woman invited an older
aunt for dinner; an impressed teenager wrote to her
grandmother; a man in his thirties made plans to take relatives
for a Sunday afternoon drive.
Blending Words and Music
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
V