New and Meaningful in Creativity — A Dream “Where Do We Find the Happiness?”
— The Journey of being happy (Chapter 3)
This story is about a journey of a girl who was seeking happiness and meaning in life. The trip starts at the known to discover the unknowns.
In the previous chapter, the girl learned about standing on the giant shoulder. Let’s discover what next she could learn in her journey.
Sitting on the bank, looking at the dark forest not far from the village where a shepherd boy was watching for his master’s sheep, the girl asked Aesop: “What is happiness?”
Aesop told her: “Go ahead and follow your inner voice!” Aesop left her there and went to the walnut tree.
She was lost the way. She walked to the tree full of sunshine and wind where the pilot and the little prince were sitting. The pilot was drawing sheep of his planet.
“Good morning,” said the little prince.
“Good morning,” she said.
“What are you doing here?” — The little prince asked.
“I’m lost.” The girl hesitated in seconds and continued: “I’m looking for my happiness.” The pilot looked at her for a while but did not say anything.
“What is happiness?” asked the little prince.
The pilot looked at both kids and did not know how to answer the questions.
She said: “I don’t really know what happiness is, but I might know the opposite” then, she drew the opposite thing of happiness.
Looking at the picture for a while, the little prince told her:
“You think like a grown-up.”
“Go ahead, and follow your heart!” The pilot told her.
When the sun went down behind the mountain slowly, she met a skinny little boy reading book of Aesop.
That was Son, her childhood brother, but he could read. He said to her gently: “Happiness is always inside you!”
She woke up at midnight. She realized that was just a dream. However, it was an exciting journey she never had before.
Final Thought
Through the journey and through the time, each person in her dream participated, talked to her, interacted with her story to help her find out the happiness she had never seen before, or she might have it, but she lost it. It was true that each has his own opinion, but together they could create a new way to find the true meaning of life. Like the way she drew her pictures, she loved collecting the interactions and hearing ideas from others. The creativity was coincident with the moment of reception and interaction by other participants.
However, selectively listening was crucially important. The girl was so lucky that she could learn from Aesop, the little prince, the pilot, and her childhood friend what is called the good-ness, the strong mind, and the way of choosing a new perspective. It did not matter either she made her artworks colorful or created them in different shades of black and white. The most important was she could make something new and meaningful to her and others. It was the time she got out of the old box and looked for a collaboration.
The next day, she asked Sam:
“Do you want to show me how to color my happiness?” — she asked him with bright eyes like she wanted to say: “I’m ready to change!”.
Aesop’s Fables: The little prince.
Sawyer K. (2010). Group Creativity- Music, Theater, Collaboration. NewYork and London: Routledge
