Standing on Giants Shoulders — Essential Position for Creativity
— The Journey of being happy (Chapter 2)
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 first chapter, the girl learned her first session about thinking outside of the box. Let’s discover what next she could learn in her journey.
Son was one of the reasons why she read a lot of books during her childhood. She was then a lonely 14 years old girl. Still, she kept reading because someone said that “we read to know we’re not alone,” and she kept drawing to follow her passion. Without Son, her world was darkness. She was satisfied within her box, where she could enjoy what she had known. But loneliness in such a long time was not a positive factor for her creativity, and her pictures were always too dark and sorrowful.
It was a white cat who sat alone by the window: empty and unwanted. Everything about this picture was dark except the flowers, and they were the same colors as a gemstone and were spiritual and cheerful.
The cat was in the liminality of thinking, either staying on this lonely island or jumping to a new place- probably in the middle of nowhere or might be a place where happiness was.
The girl asked herself the same question. Either she continued drawing in her comfort zone, or she should quit it and find something different. Run-Away.
She joined the painting club every Saturday. There, they played with their own ‘boxes’ and had a chance to know the boxes of each other. In that class, Sam was the boy who always sat next to her.
‘Why are you sad?’ The boy asked her.
‘I’m not sad,’ she said and drew on a paper. ‘I’m in this box. Inside this box, it was warm, it’s comfortable,’ she hesitantly swallowed and continued to draw the following box. ‘But. I’m curious how about the outside. Would I also see things the same as before if I move myself out there?’
‘Change is not easy,’ Sam said.
‘But when I’m drawing with colors, I’m also curious,’ he smiled and continued. ‘I sometimes don’t know if that color would fit or I will destroy the whole picture which I spent 5 hours for it.’
‘And?’ She looked at him.
‘Well, I do it. After 100 times I failed, I have my own answer,’ He said. ‘We never know if we don’t try. If you are afraid of destroying your artwork, keep practicing because only experience and knowledge can help you stand higher than your box. From there, you can observe the outside and the inside of that box.’
Final thought
Looking for a change to be happier was at that moment her new challenge. For creativity, it’s crucial to think out of the box. However, sometimes the case is we forget to think inside of the box at the same time.
Being inside the box means we know better who we are, what we need, and the truth of why we do. Being outside the box helps us to help a different perspective towards the problems. Either from inside out or outside in, we get more new and practical ideas. On top of that, we can see another significant perspective: ‘Upon the giant’s shoulder’ or ‘upon the box.’
Upon the box is just a different perspective I would love to add to the lesson this week. The view from upon gives us a total overview of the situation. We can see things either outside or inside. However, someone would argue: why should we view from inside or outside when we can see everything by standing upon it?
The truth is that standing upon it is nothing more than a different perspective. It can not replace other standings because we can only observe while standing upon. We can not feel, touch, and understand and connect the situation to solve the problems. Last but not least, being creative is able to make connections!
William Nicholson Shadowlands
Griffin S. (2006). What box? Out-pf-the-Box thinking for career and life.
To be continued
