5.2.6 Creative Change

Let me begin this Sub-Chapter on Creative Change by repeating a saying I once heard (I can’t remember when or where) that the two most important days in our lives are the day we’re born and the day we realise why we were born.

What is our purpose on this Earth anyway?

Socrates the Greek philosopher is reported to have said that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’.

I don’t think that Socrates (or anyone else) has the last word on whether or not our lives are worth living – but the saying has survived over twenty-four centuries so perhaps it struck a chord with people who write books and decide what to include in them and what not.

I assume that Socrates, wise man that he was, intended that his statement would encourage us ordinary people to reflect on and examine our lives. But hidden within it is there an implication that there are people who don’t examine their lives?

The danger is that such a statement could be used (perhaps has been – for all I know) by powerful people to decide whether or not entire races’ lives are worth living.

For example, in the centuries of European colonialism of the Americas and subsequent slavery, where black people were thought to be inferior to white people, and could be enslaved, bullied, bought, sold, owned, killed with impunity and had zero rights, Socrates’ statement about whose lives were worth living may have been interpreted by power-hungry narcissists who promoted the pseudo-science of eugenics to maintain that there were people who did not have enough intelligence to examine their lives so to speak.

Therefore it was a lot easier to convince people in the colonising countries that the lives of people in colonised countries were not worth living.

I don’t know this – I am merely speculating on the evidence of hundreds of years of exploitation and my experience of growing up in a country that was colonised – but the fact that the statement has survived so long, and is remembered (if not revered) by philosophers is telling in itself.

What about the attitude of the Pillars to those who get involved in criminality and imprisonment?  What evidence is there to show us that the Pillars think that individuals in our Focus Group take the time and trouble to examine their lives?

Reflecting back on this post – not much!

Just to recap, the media continually write irresponsible, insulting and/or patronising copy.  The public service largely ignores wisdom that people possess and make up their minds for them on almost everything.  Academia continually tells others what should be done as if people did not know themselves, and politicians generally want little to do with such issues anyway. 

(Trust me – this is going somewhere)! 

I believe that everyone examines their lives.

Perhaps, in the process of examination, we struggle to change from the life we are leading to a life that might emerge as a result of the examination – but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have wisdom, dreams, goals and ambitions.

Between the life we lead and the life we’d love to lead (perhaps, what might be termed our full potential) there is often a gap.  For many people a kind of ongoing internal battle is fought every day to bridge this gap.  This battle is fought largely in our unconscious – if we were consciously aware of it our life may be intolerable as we continually criticise ourselves for not changing, i.e. being true to ourselves.

The term quantum leap – borrowed from the world of physics – might be familiar to some of you. In the physics of sub-atomic particles, it signifies a substantial movement from a state of low energy to a state of high energy. I often think of it when I think of the last paragraph, i.e. the gap between the life we are leading vs. the life we’d like to live.

I believe that creativity (and its companion, inspiration) can be used to bridge that gap. 

The reason is that, in the process of change, there is almost always some fear, and when we experience creativity that fear can be reduced.

It may be that, if we are very hurt, complaining a lot might be a protective barrier that we erect because we perceive the challenge of bridging the gap to be too big.

It might indeed be a barrier, but it might also be a lead-in to doing something – and we practitioners need to recognise this. Creating space (i.e. an open environment) is essential in fostering creativity.  I believe that creativity will not thrive in an atmosphere of closed-ness or narrowmindedness. 

This is true of both space and time. 

Wherever and whenever it is, we need to allow people to express themselves, negotiate boundaries and offer the respect that we’d expect ourselves.  Within this respect is the creation of conditions that permit someone to focus on what is important at that time, and resist the temptation to interrupt, or rush a solution.

I mentioned already that early in my career doing streetwork I observed that people who need creativity most have least access to it – and so on encountering it they usually find it refreshing and attractive.

I believe that the first step in being creative in examining our lives so that they will be, from our perspective and no one else’s, worth living, is to allow people the space to day-dream.

Being able to dream, spontaneously describe the dream, think out loud as we say, and be safe (i.e. not be judged as foolish or, indeed, disrespectful) is a substantial element in enabling creative change [1].

I believe that it assists greatly in seeing and imagining possibilities.

Resistance that is observed by practitioners is usually seen as a negative and inhibiting element – but surely what someone is resisting is that which we, the practitioners, have planned for them.  The creative practitioner will trust that change in people who are very hurt will come about through healing – not through a cognitive programme or formulaic agenda delivered within an inflexible curriculum.

In respect of change, everything is a tool (or even an opportunity) for the creative practitioner, because she trusts the pace that is determined by the person seeking assistance.

[1]. There is an interesting book/film called The Secret which touches on this.

I have said many times already that, under the right conditions, the root foundations of human growth work away by themselves.

So people might rightfully ask if there’s any point in being present at all?

But there is!  After all, a child’s development and growth is far more dependent on her parents’ presence than what they do for her.

Presence is the principal right condition necessary to enable the process of growth, within which humans yearn for inclusion and relationship.  People who sense that practitioners are genuinely interested in them, culturally empathic, and unconditional in their regard will tend towards self-nurture (and ultimately responsibility) by the natural human inclination to grow. 

I have always noticed that the more successful practitioners are the ones that are proactive in relationship building.  Proactivity, and being in the thick of it, so to speak, certainly upsets the apple-cart of those who like things to stay the same.  Because change involves creativity, it tends to define someone – i.e. we tend to be defined by the lives we lead and also changes we make.

What about change and freedom?

I believe that if we are not free our very existence is threatened.  Children are not free but they are on the road to freedom, so a motivation to grow (change) is the promise of freedom.  Similarly patients in hospitals – they are not really free either but but they are on the way to wellness, so a motivation to get better (change) is the promise of freedom.  Change – even change for the better – is challenging because we always lose when we gain.

The very hurt person will yearn for the old way of being just like the teenager yearns for his childhood without responsibility, or the person recovering at home will look back nostalgically at his time in hospital when the staff brought in the tea and toast in the morning!

Also, we need to be aware of the effect of creative change on practitioners within the Pillars.  As mentioned a few times already, there are brilliant practitioners within the Pillars whose creative side can be appealed to by people within the voluntary sector with whom they work in partnership.

(I will not go into this too much here as it merits a discussion itself towards the end of the website in a Chapter entitled Getting the Pillars to Believe).

Finally, being angry with or judgmental of others for not being creative enough is not only pointless and counter-productive but is also disrespectful to the many hard-working people in all our organisations who try to effect positive change every day. Neither does it, of course, honour the root foundations.

Because their onward march cannot be halted.  Once again I paraphrase Jean Paul Sartre’s quote from the Chapter on Complex Variables; we are condemned to grow!