The wellness center topic is directly below this one and is entitled Genius in Action -- Creating a Model for a Community Wellness Center. It is picking up great traction, so feel free to jump in there, too.
This topic was inspired by an email from KBF, who tracked me down via my bio to suggest that he'd love to play in the arena of, "What are the absolutely wildest, most exotic, crazy, out-there creative experiences you've had? What did you gain from these experiences? How were you changed?"
I thought this was a wonderful idea and a chance to advance the creative string on to the next level. Please feel free to dive in and take us on your own creative journey.
Thanks!
Christopher
P.S. And thanks to KBF for this very engaging idea.
P.P.S. As always remember that to see the comments in a separate window, click on the "Comments" link. To see the comments in the body of the topic, click "Links to this Post"
Views of those commenting have not been checked for accuracy and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog publisher or his associates.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Exotic Genius -- Your Wildest, Most Daring or Memorable Creative Experience
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Well, since our Sir Christopher was amply entraced to post my subversive idea, I decided that I ought to start this thing off with what I hope is "bang" instead of a "thud."
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind, a word of warning before I begin. If you're the type of person who cannot abide the truthful tale of a boy who had lust in his pre-pubescent heart, you best pass this piece of commentary by. All right, my sad excuse for a conscience is clear. Read on, if you dare.
One of my most memorable creative experiences was with my Aunt Tia (I later found out that wasn't her real name, but was apparently Spanish for aunt. And that led to my finding out she wasn't my aunt, but my mother's lover. Now, intriguing as that may be, that's another story entirely.)
So, back to Act I of my little narrative...
Tia was a bohemian sort of gal, way ahead of her time – a pre-hippie, kind of hippie. Into the Bauhaus movement, Jack Kerouac, beat poetry and all that jazz. One Saturday she tells me that she's going to take me to a modern art gallery. Now I'm a kid and though an undoubtedly confirmed dork, I'm still not real enthused about the idea of going to an "art gallery." But, since I had a fairly sizeable crush on Tia (though she reminded me of a man, in some ways), I mutter a moan and say, "Oh, all right."
Tia says to me, "What? You've never been to an art gallery? My child," she says. “That's where you find God." I'm staring at her, I'm sure, like she's out of her Marxist mind.
Well, cut to the end of this personal anecdote. I found God in the art gallery that day, because Tia helped me learn how to "experience" a painting and appreciate the smell of Old Spice on a woman. She helped me to imagine what a painter may have felt when they painted "their soul on a canvas" and why a gentle touch on your arm is best when it's got a slight firmness to it. Tia helped me imagine what that “remarkable force” may have been like as it “came into those people and made them paint a painting, because they had to do something with it.” -- and how a young boy can feel exactly the same way, though he may have no desire or inclination in the moment to paint.
(She would have understood our blog clan's creatively overwrought, Lisa Lee, perfectly. And she would have most likely lured her into painting like a mad woman and exhibiting her extreme art in a bad little coffee shop in a sad part of town, because that’s where the real artists live.)
Truth be told, my Aunt Tia is the reason I became interested in creativity and how I started on the path of trying to understand what this “god-like,” wild, neuron-stimulating power is. And though I’m still not sure I know what it is, I can remember back on that day with Tia any time in my life and be transported back to the moment when I first felt what I think those artists must have felt as they began to create their relentless vision on canvas.
Pretty warm and fuzzy for an old scientific fart like me, I know. But that, at first reluctant, dork-of-a-boy is still what drives my exuberance and relentless passion today. He's the reason that when someone said that some whacked out cat is leading a blog called, "Passionate Genius," I found my way here. For underneath all my pomp, pugnacious traits, and fifty dollar words is a wonder-struck kid trying to find God in a canvas while scheming a way to kiss his Aunt Tia on her ever-so-luscious lips.
KBF, I've got to tell you that this topic would be worth it for nothing more than that story. Wow! Wonderful insight into your past and equally as well told.
ReplyDeleteYou've inspired me to look into my own past and see if I can conjur up even remotely as interesting.
Thanks!
The Power comes over you... ...from within or without... you are not sure.
ReplyDeleteIT must find expression... While some seek to express... others try to muffle IT's call... stuffing IT deep inside until IT no longer bears any resemblance to the beauty of which IT came to speak.
Don't let it grow ragged... with edges that will cut... with teeth that will tear you asunder.
Let IT be... Let IT out... Let IT through while IT is fresh... alive... whole!
Let IT be... YOU!
When I reflect on the experience I'm about to describe, it surprises even me. I can only imagine how it might break type for any of you who have come to know me as a polite and somewhat prudish school teacher.
ReplyDeleteI was twenty-three years old and fresh out of a four year college in New England. It was the summer before I would begin the first in what would become a series of career-long teaching endeavors. A young man, who had been a close friend of mine throughout my college experience, invited me to "the lake" to spend a weekend with his family.
The very notion that he had invited me to meet his family was, in and of itself, intriguing because though he had mentioned very little about them in the three years we had been friends, what he had mentioned was -- well, rather odd.
As we drove up the gravel road to his family’s cabin on the lake, I was quickly shaken from my bucolic surroundings. For ahead of us, sprawled out in deck chairs and cavorting about on the lawn in front of the cabin, was his entire extended family – naked! It was not simply that they were fully disrobed, however, but that they also wore various headdresses (some of a Native American chief, some the wig of an 18th century British Lord, some an extravagant women's hat -- and none necessarily being worn in a gender appropriate manner).
The weekend that ensued was a brilliantly surreal mix of creative expression (after finally coaxing my out of my clothes later that morning, they announced that the body painting phase had just begun); immense kindness; and total acceptance in regard to who one was and was not.
I learned more in that brief weekend about being a free spirit and of the genuine kindness a family community can exhibit than perhaps at any other time in my life. It was upon our leaving, however, that the magnitude of the entire experience fully revealed itself to me.
One piece had puzzled me about our two-day revelries. Though my friend had gradually become more and more scantily clad, he had never fully disrobed. So as we drove down the gravel path headed toward the highway that would take us home, I asked him, "Does your family always get nude at your cabin?"
"No. Never." was his response, smiling with a sense of relief and embarrassment. “They did it for you.”
I could not imagine what he meant until he explained that based on what he had told them about me over the years, they had decided that this experience was the ideal rite of passage that I needed before embarking on my journey into the "real world." “They’ll cook one up for me, too,” he added. “But later, you know? Each person gets their own tailored event,” he said. “God only knows what that’s going to be like.”
Just trying to imagine the possibilities made me laugh out loud with an unbridled child-like freedom I’d not felt in years (nor have since). Clearly my friend’s family was creative and, to say the least, adaptive. But to think that they had created an entire “nude weekend” as a send-off for a young woman they had never met is still unfathomable to me. What would cause a family to have reached out to a total stranger with such an open-hearted sense of service and vulnerability?
I recently had occasion to speak with my friend on the phone after years of no contact. Toward the end of our conversation, I asked him. "Has your family ever (long pause) -- well, gotten naked again?" I asked.
"No," he answered. But we probably should have. That weekend is still one of our fondest memories. Thanks for going along with it."
And then it struck me. Yes. I did go along with it. Maybe this Midwestern school teacher has a more creative spirit than she knows.
BV, I'll add my own anecdote later, though likely nothing as frisky as yours.
ReplyDeleteI had to drop you a line, however, and say that I was absolutely charmed by your experience and the manner in which you shared it with us.
Thank you, and kudos! (Which, by the way, don't come easily from me.)
I want to tell somebody else's story… because I think you need to know… like just how special this dude is... and they've said it's okay...
ReplyDeleteRizzin and I grew up together... since we were about 11 and first started sneaking out of our school to surf. He was always a really quiet little dude... and he always had this happy look on his face... especially when we were sitting on the beach counting the sets before we jumped in and paddled out.
Bout the only time he'd say much was when we'd say "ready?" And he'd say "Yeah... oh yeah!"
One day we were sitting on our boards... you know... perfect sun... perfect morning... and the dolphins came by... kind of like they do on a lot of mornings. Except this morning they kind of hung out around Rizzin... you know... like they wanted him to come join them.
Rizzin got this silly assed grin on his face and said "I'm going." We laughed... like "go dolphin boy!" But he really did it. He slipped off his board... unteathered himself... and like grabbed one of their fins and took off.
We all kind of laughed... like the crazy dude has done it... But when he got way out in the distance we got worried. We all paddled out looking for him... a couple of guys rode in and ran down the beach. They're the ones that found him... laying sprawled out on the beach... looking like a drowned rat or something.
Rizzin has hardly spoken since then... we were 14... it was 12 years ago. He still smiles... only more... he works in a fresh food market as a stockboy... he doesn't surf any more... he only watches... and he writes poetry about IT… and about peace and stuff like that.
I still don't know what happened to him that day... and it kind of doesn’t matter any more… but he's the most truly peaceful person I know... if the whole world had that experience maybe we wouldn't be in the freaking mess we are.
You're IT Rizzin... it’s true dude... you're our ultimate peaceful warrior.
Hey ZEE (and RIZZIN),
ReplyDeleteThanks for making my day. Any further comment I could make about the story would just screw up something perfect.
I love all of these stories. But the one by Zee about his friend, is truly the best for me. It just melted this girl's heart.
ReplyDeleteBeen reading this blog for a little over a week. What a wonderful group you've all formed. So glad Christopher invited me to participate.
Live truly deeply,
JJ
My most memorable creative experience is nowhere near as remarkable as those who've scribed before me.
ReplyDeleteI was working with a client who seemed to be suffering from a very real existential crisis. Since they seemed to be in an almost constant state of upheaval over their dilemma, I had tried everything in my arsenal to help them find at least a modicum of clarity.
It was the evening before my next appointment with them and I was sitting on my patio relaxing (or at least pretending to relax) when a hummingbird flew up to me and paused -- hovering in the air, no more than three feet from my face -- the little being seemed to make some sort of contact with me. Just as quickly, it then turned and flew away.
In that instant I knew what to do -- it would be unconventional and not necessarily appropriate for everyone -- but somehow I knew it would work for them.
The next morning as my client entered, I was sitting in their normal client chair. They looked at me somewhat puzzled, but I motioned for them to take my chair. After they were seated, I said, "I need your help, today."
A look of compassion came over them and they leaned forward to inquire. "What do you need?"
"I need you to tell me how to help you," I said. "Today, I'm the client. Tell me what I should say or do to help you with your dilemma."
The session went over time and provided a monumental breakthrough not only for my client, but for me as well. They were somehow able, by taking the position of being the expert advisor on themselves, to uncover some of the massive missing pieces that our previous conversations had not unearthed.
As they left, they hugged me and smiled. "We should reverse roles more often."
I smiled back. Perhaps we should. And then I stopped and wondered. What was it about the hummingbird that served as a trigger for that flash of insight? It's almost as if it transmitted some flash of insight to me. That may sound fantastical, but each time I reflect on that moment, it seems that this is precisely what happened.
Any clues, anyone?
"In an instant elightenment shines like a golden ray into the darkened mind. From being to being it is transmitted. This is no more a mystery, than that of the rising sun. "
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nyguen.
ReplyDeleteYour words, as always, are at once poignant and puzzling -- leaving me to ask more and perhaps deeper questions than the one with which I started.
Silly me, I just wanted a simple easy answer (now I understand how my clients feel when I ask them to do the same). But I suppose that is the point -- to explore the mystery more deeply.
IT pauses for a flicker... a moment... to reflect on who IT is... but in an instant... it has forgotten... and in that momentary flash of eternity... a mystery is formed... until once again... IT remembers... that IT is you.
ReplyDeleteI've been on holiday with my family... had a great time... but missed all of you... and thought a lot about writing about my experience... cuz it's pretty crazy, you know? But it's how I am... it's how it happens for me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of my wildest most creative times... it's something that happens a lot... like at least once a week... you know?
I'll be wandering around in my house... and I can just feel this sort of itch... gnawing at me from the inside... it's going to get out... I can feel it... it's ready...
Next thing I know... pulling off my clothes... wearing nothing but me... grabbing paint... brushes... canvas... paper... pen... got to paint... write!
Something's going to explode... need music... iPod... pump up speakers... then... oh god... oh god... oh god... it happens!
Explosion... a rush... painting... writing... frenzy... action... overtaken... sensual... wild... frightening... so f....ing alive!
And then... panting... painting... writing... BAM... gone!
Done... panting... finished... collapse... something beautiful...created... a painting... flurry of poems... paper everywhere... sweating... energy gone... soooo satisfied… had sex with God... filled me with LIFE! LIFE! LIFE!
In love with this! So in love! When will it come again?
Lisa Lee
Lisa Lee, I think you're the one who got this expression going several months ago, but...
ReplyDeleteWOW!
Incredible experience and description.
If you could only imagine my sheer embarrassment at having a parent of one of my students visit me at the school regarding the "questionable" web site I had recommended to my students. Apparently several of the students have been following the conversations in this forum regularly. I have been elated by their interest and with the stimulating discussions that their involvement has evoked in our classroom.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, however, the room was buzzing with talk about a girl who wrote of painting while in the nude; and of having sex with God.
I thought that certainly they must be joking or attempting to play a very rude trick on me. However, when I later checked out this blog site, not only did I gasp as I read the lurid details of Lisa Lee's creative experience, but I found that the editor of this blog both published her comments and congratulated her for contribution.
I have tried very diligently to fit in with this group and to abide its chiding. In the process, I have found a great deal of value most of the time. Nevertheless, if this section of the blog is going to deteriorate into a sexual diary, I am sorry to report that my association with this particular topic is over. I have, in like fashion, warned my students and their parents and encouraged them to altogether avoid this particular topic.
I will certainly keep an eye out and may still involve myself with the discussion on healthcare as I feel it is a topic of great import and one which continues to be conducted with a far greater degree of decorum.
Respectfully,
BV
Dear BV (and the rest of our blog family),
ReplyDeleteI can only speak for myself, but BV's startling comments remind me of the old saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
I read Lisa Lee's entry and wept... at how open she was... how much she trusted us with her very personal experience... and at how deeply intimate her experience with the creative realm is.
Thank you, Christopher, for having the decency to both publish it and acknowledge her courage and the honesty with which she spoke.
All I know... is that the world needs love... and I felt so much love for Lisa Lee and for this family... that we could support each other so beautifully.
I still feel that way and though I do not agree with BV's assessment of this topic or Lisa Lee's creative expression... I honor her right to speak her mind.
Love is the Only Power,
Jonnie
BV! I am absolutely astonished that you could have the utter and complete gall to stand on your pedestal and preach to Lisa Lee after I congratulated you for sharing a similar event in your own life.
ReplyDeleteDoes your version somehow pass civil muster because it resembles a passage from a Jane Austin novel? Whereas Lisa Lee's telling is in modern prose? Or is it because her experience of the divine offended someone's delicate sensibilities? For heaven sakes, some people need to grow up. BV, your story was delightful -- your vulnerability sublime. Why can’t we extend that same grace to this young woman as well?
Can someone please email this woman and get her back here to apologize. And Lisa Lee -- I agree with Jonnie and Christopher. Your words touched me, made me think, got me excited, and made me grateful that you're in this world -- and all of that in the same moment. It was pure genius, dear. So don’t let the bastards get you down.
Sincerely,
Dot P
Thanks to Dot P... Jonnie... Christopher. I am really glad that you understand what I was trying to say.
ReplyDeleteAnd to BV... I'm sorry that some people got upset at what I wrote... I didn't mean for you or anyone else to get in trouble cuz of me...
I don't want people to not be here because of something I created... but I also don't want to leave or pretend to not be me either...
Sometimes people need to look at others... and realize that we all try to live and be in this world the best way we know how... you know?
Peace,
Lisa Lee
Now, admittedly, part of me was basking in pure delight as I re-visited this blog upon returning from London only to discover that women were wrestling over stories involving their nakedness; and that God and sex are being mentioned in the very same sentence! What could make me happier? For I had nary dared to dream that such inventiveness could occur in my absence.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, my fellow bloglings, it is our very intolerance and our unwillingness to grant one another, as our angelic Lisa Lee has suggested, the presumption of good intentions that leads so many to shut down their creative expression or to hide it away. It is also the tyranny of presumed moral superiority, indignation, and public shaming -- exhibited by the parents who confronted our freshly emerging BV -- that later leads to censorship, monitoring, and the general muffling of anything that strays beyond the mortally boring boundaries of the mundane. My heart is also saddened that BV, a delicate flower -- so filled with life and vitality just days ago -- has retreated into her illusory bastion of hard-heartedness in order to protect herself.
My suggestion -- as perhaps the one who is ultimately to blame, since it was I who goaded poor Sir Christopher into launching this topic in the first place -- is that we proceed with sharing of our creative moments of ecstasy and allow this potentially instructive collision of values to elicit a deeper wisdom within us. Should darling BV decide to recant her self-protective accusations, stand down from the pillar of moral supremacy which she felt forced to mount, and join our motley lot, we would welcome her with open arms and only too willingly write her tirade off as a moment of understandable human frailty.
Come, my children! Let us continue on to the creative Promised Land.
With great affection,
The Biggest Bastard of Them All
Hey folks,
ReplyDeleteMy, my. Anything I might say has been beautifully stated already, on the "carrot" end by KBF and on the "stick" end by dot P. Well played both of you, and I concur with all points.
BV? Please come back from wherever it was you went! Your visions of extravagantly hatted naked strangers cavorting on the lawn stole my heart and fired my imagination. Your last post just made me sad.
And Lisa Lee? Don't you DARE back down one bit. My fist in the air and a defiant screech from me on your behalf. Do us another one!
KBF, you will be proud to know, perhaps, that it was your charming Bourgeoisie spirit, combined with Lisa Lee's unexpected graciousness, and BKO’s warrior spirit that challenged me to re-think my previous position and return with hat in hand.
ReplyDeleteIt should also be noted that I am, at this very moment, sitting in the classroom with my students. They, too, are of the strong opinion that I have betrayed myself, more than anyone else, by responding so quickly to the criticism of some their parents. (As many of you may have correctly predicted, they ignored the stricture I put in place that forbid them from continuing to observe this topic,) Thus, with the aid of one of their laptop computers, I am able to allow them to facilitate my rehabilitation.
So it is without further delay that I extend my sincere apology to Lisa Lee and everyone in our blog community. It is not that I do not have the right to speak my mind, as Lisa Lee reminded us all. Instead, it is that I spoke the mind of others instead of remaining steadfast and true to my own burgeoning spirit, which KBF so gently portrayed.
Or, to make the point more directly, I shall quote several of my street-wise students, who simply told me, "Miss V, that was really cheap of you. You need to stand up and make it right."
I am deeply appreciative that my former nemesis, KBF, and others have opened the door for my re-entrance into this group. I extend a sincere thank you to him and to each of you for your kindness. I have seldom been such an ass and yet been met with such undeserved displays of communal support. This experience brings home ever so poingnantly the value of real community.
Oh, and lest I forget, a "shout-out" to all of you from my students.
Humbly,
Miss V
P.S. Dot P, I was going to say nothing, given the circumstances, but my students insist that I mention that the author to which you referred in regard to my previous comment is Jane Austen, not Jane Austin.
Well, we've had quite the journey with this topic. I'd certainly invite people to continue contributing as you'd like. I'd also like to direct your attention to a new topic, "Global Genius -- Creative Solutions for a Crazy World."
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have you join us and see where our creative minds might take us in terms of coming up with new, productive solutions to some of the seeming challenges we've created together as a species.
Thank you!