Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
My initial response is no, but when I look back, there have been many.
I have seen that I initially dismissed it as insanity from my perspective but could see that the situation was creativity.
The most creative people create from a place that does not fit society’s norms and expectations. It comes down to your judgments of what is insanity and what is creativity.
Different was Bad
As I grew up and got my indoctrination into the world, I think I was conditioned to view anything different from the norm as bad or undesirable.
One of my favorite teachers fell under this category. I was a sophomore in high school full of hormones and wanted to get through life as quickly as possible.
I had decided to adopt an attitude of not trying because it didn’t seem good enough for those responsible for my education whenever I did. I especially hated writing because there were too many rules.
Then came this class, the teacher was a woman who looked at life differently from me, and to me, she was a little bit insane. In retrospect, I can say wholeheartedly she was not the least bit crazy. She cared and was willing to do whatever it took to allow us to grow as young people. My education would have been much more valuable with more teachers like her.
Winds of Change
She saw our class’s problem as a group that didn’t like English, writing, or each other. She went on a one-woman campaign to change all of those factors.
I remember she had us doing group-building activities outside on the field and in the classroom, and of course, at first, I was thinking, “This is stupid, and I hate it.”
But as I got to know her and the others in my class, I began to find that I liked writing things and having someone else see what I thought.
The writing wasn’t all rules; it was creativity and capturing what you think and feel. That you could express yourself this way was a revelation!
The insanity that had been her method to me led to the creativity of not only myself but many of the others in the class.
It is many years later, and I have relearned the lessons about writing that I learned many years ago. I am grateful to all of the people who have motivated and taught me something, and I know that tenth-grade English class was the first time I saw insanity and later saw creativity.
The Box is for Crackers
I believe this is an essential concept because most of the great.
Discoveries and genuinely original work come from individuals who think outside the box and may be considered a little insane in their process and thoughts.
Think outside the box as often as you can, don’t let anyone else’s societal expectations change the way you think or dim the great thoughts and deeds in us all.
Don’t let your ideas be dismissed as insanity, stick to them, and they will set you free and most likely change the world.
