Rethinking Creativity: Making Something From Nothing

You aren’t only what you eat…you’re what you practice

A portrait my father painted of me as a child emphasizing the unexpected connections going on in my thinking at any given time, a labyrinth as cavernous as the hidden vaults and sub-basements apparently burrowed beneath Snoopy’s humble doghouse. Photo by James H. Rolling, Jr.

During the pandemic, I gave a virtual talk to local art students at Henninger High School in the city of Syracuse in Central New York to get them thinking as early as possible about where creative habits of mind come from — the kind of habits that will make them effective creators, makers, builders and innovators when they grow up. I offered a familiar reference, since most people on the planet in this day and age have encountered a superhero origin story, whether in a recent movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe or from the pages of a comic book. If one of the characteristics of creativity is the ability to “make something from nothing,” it’s just as important to recognize that what is apparently nothing is always more than it appears to be.

When Captain America is first given the Super Soldier Serum in the 2011 MCU film depicting his origin story, he is told that the serum makes a person more of what they already are — amplifying one’s defining characteristics, tendencies, strengths and habits. Well, here’s the thing: you aren’t only what you eat, you’re what you practice. In other words, you aren’t only what you regularly take in, you’re also what you habitually do. So even when it feels like we’re not accomplishing anything, just like…