Create what you will!

This is one of my favourite quotes in relation to creativity... it's attributed to George Bernard Shaw. The full quote goes "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will". It's from the play "Back to Methuselah" a piece which is called a A Metabiological Pentateuch (???) - first published in 1921, an epic 5 cycle philosophical piece not often produced (for obvious reasons). So at this point in the play the Serpent is explaining to Eve how it came to be that Lilith created two beings - Adam and Eve. There is a lovely interchange then about the process of creating, with Eve saying:

EVE: To desire, to imagine, will, to create. That is too long a story, find me one word for it all; you who are so clever with words at words.

SERPENT: In one word, to conceive. That is the word that means both the beginning in the imagination and the end in creation.

Eve then tells the Serpent she will go and tell Adam 'to conceive', at which the Serpent laughs. He explains to Eve that Adam can imagine, he can will, desire and create - all but one thing, his own kind. So in this account women really have it all - the abilities to create and to conceive in all ways, including the most significant to human kind (a pity that first half has been forgotten for so much of human history).

Anyway back to why I like this quote... I think that for me it highlights the idea that while creativity can arise from experimentation and play, then there is an act of will, you have to want to do something, make something, bring it into being. This act of will is an essentially human act. We enjoy creating, we enjoy newness, we enjoy changing things, objects, ideas and our environment to make it more as we would like it to be. The big Csik guy also talks about this kind of idea (that humans are programmed for creativity) but an interesting addition to this is when he identifies that the counterpoint to creativity is 'entrophy'. Whilst we can derive pleasure from creating and doing something new, humans also derive pleasure when we are comfortable, when we can relax and enjoy ourselves by doing nothing ('Flow', 1996 p 109). The urge to relax and veg out can be so strong that this least effort option overpowers the more energetic act of creating... boy did he get that one right!! However ... there's only so much entrophic vegetating most of us can really enjoy in one sitting and then..... if we listen to this other force - this creative calling... we too can bring into being something quite marvellous!