the other night, i was talking on the phone with the TTHM. we were rambling aimlessly about all this fascinating when i asked him about the urge to create. i was wondering if everyone had that compulsion to create something, anything. what got me thinking was hanging out with sister #3, and she doesn’t seem to create anything ever. neither do the other members of the sister club. it puzzles me, because if i don’t create something at least once a week i get all full and uncomfortable in my skin. not that everything i create is worthy of other people’s eyes, but i do it all the damn time. i can’t seem to stop.
is this something most all humans have? this compulsion to create something? or is it just a disease that afflicts certain people? do you feel compelled to create something all the time?
also without moving from my cube, i’ve manage to catch a cold. i really need a hug.
i dont usually have the urge to “create” anything. mostly i have the urge to “absorb”. i would rather spend my time reading something someone else wrote or looking at an image produced by someone else than try to come up with something that would appeal to either myself or other people. i suppose that there is a natural balance of creators and absorbers in the world. if there werent we would either have too much unappreciated stuff…or just a bunch of bored people waiting around for something to catch their eye.
I don’t think so. I don’t have the urge to create really, though I do sometimes feel an urge to procreate…
I do think that’s a thing certain people have and they can’t contain it. If we are lucky we get creative people who have originality to offer. Mozart, Da Vinci, Georgia O’Keefe and the like.
Sometimes I think we end up with creators who don’t really have the talent to back up their urge. Stephen King has adequate talent but his drive seems to outshine his ability. I’d put Jackson Pollack on that level as well. I think that’s a person who was freakin’ driven to create, but I’m not certain I see genius. Creativity, yes. Genius? I dunno about that.
Speaking for myself, I’m probably on the next tier down. If I create it’s not because I have to, it’s because I want to and want to challenge myself or try something. It’s more cerebral and purposeful. Also I don’t really have any discenable talent, so in these ways I’m more of a Warhol.
sometimes i think i create because i want to, like when i do craft projects with the kidlings. that’s a want, not a need.
but more often than not i create because i have to.
sadly, i think i’m more stephen king than someone genius-like.
Your sisters have created children, does that count? I guess they spend their energies there. You can be VERY creative as a parent. Most people just aren’t.
I am at my happiest when I create. I am out of touch with my self when that part of me is ignored. This can cover various fields of work as well-its like a little part of me made manifest outside myself. Genius is a way we as a culture measure this-as for me I don’t care if anyone sees it-I just need to do it.
I do think raising kids saps alot of this energy.
I like to think we all have this need but I could be wrong given the comments above.
I am sending a hug from St. Louis. If I lived closer I’d make chicken soup as well.
Just recently I read in someone’s blog about this creative thing being isolated as some sort of mild disease, and in the compulsive disorder family if I’m not mistaken. I can’t remember where it was, but I’ll hunt around a little bit. You’d think I would have paid more attention, being afflicted with similar creative symptoms. I certainly wouldn’t take any meds to stop it. Would you?
I need to write. It’s definitely something I’m compelled to do. My sister, who was a good artist in high school, doesn’t feel compelled to create at all. Once, in my older-sisterly wisdom, I decided she was unfulfilled and needed an outlet. I bought her some books on creativity, some art supplies, etc., and she never used them. That was years ago. She doesn’t create at all—no crafts, no gardening, nothing. Yet she says she’s perfectly happy, and it’s probably true that she’s way happier than I am. It’s a curse and a blessing, this writing thing.
Eek! I have a diagnosed compulsive disorder (actually, I lean toward the obsessive) – and even happily medicated, I tend to create. My thing is journaling, and I used to be a big scrapbooker. That was pre-website. Now I tend to put my energies online. I don’t really do it for anyone but myself.
I put my own touch on my work, too. It’s like I put a piece of myself out there in whatever I do. Or something like that.
I don’t think I ever have urges to create. I need to solve, if that makes any sense.
I have the urge to fix. To make better. To protect.
Guy syndrome?