What Was the Last Creative Choice You Made?

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Question of the week: What was the last creative choice you made?

 Before absolutely every quiz or test in my seventh grade Texas History class (yes, when you live in texas during middle school, you take texas history), our teacher, Ms. Burnham, had a routine. 

 She passed out the quizzes or tests, then recited this poem: 

 'The time has come,' the walrus said,

to talk of many things:

of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —

of cabbages — and kings —

and why the sea is boiling hot — 

and whether pigs have wings.'

 She then wished us luck. 

 As a refresher for those who passed on 19th c. British Lit, that particular passage is an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's poem, 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.' it became so much a part of my life that school year, that I can still recite that poem verbatim, 25 years later. 

In moments of seventh grade anguish and fear looming before multiple choice q's about Stephen F. Austin or the history of the chuckwagon, she rooted us in both custom and imagination - in a very small space between passing out a test and taking it. 

 As an adult - and a former high school teacher - i've come to realize just how special that was. Ms. Burnham could have very easily just passed out the tests and returned to her desk. She chose a more creative way.  

 It was 13 seconds of poetry when you least expected it. It was a really creative choice. 

 There are opportunities to make creative choices at all times, in all circumstances. 

 I’ll be the first to tell you that creative choices were damn hard in 2020. It was hard to find magic in the midst of a global pandemic, cultural and political unrest, the ever changing faces of business, work, home, and relationships. Sometimes creativity in 2020 meant just making it through a day without totally losing it. That lack of inspiration is one of the reasons why this newsletter promised weekly evolved into a publication I pushed out just three times in 365 days. But I digress…

 If I’ve learned anything about creative choices over the last year, it’s this: they’re hard because they require space - brain space, heart, space, soul space. Not a lot of space - just a little. That space was hard to come by this last year. 

 I typically get a lot of ideas and inspiration and energy when I’m out in the world; and like a lot of humans this year, I desperately craved travel the year I couldn’t do it. As a result, I felt idea-less; there were moments where I felt like my imagination was like oatmeal you made and forgot on the kitchen counter for hours. What I’ve come to realize though is that travel I so desperately craved (and still do…) is just really about creating space - in my brain, heart, and soul - and then filling it. When I realized that, I knew that even just five minutes of space somewhere - on a walk, in 5 minutes after a string of Zoom calls, in the car, parked and sitting was enough to get the creative juices flowing again. 

 Through the magic of Facebook last year, I asked Ms. Burnham (now Mrs. Johnson) how and why she made that creative choice.

“I read the book Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh the summer before my sixth grade year. Harriet's nanny Ole Golly used to say that phrase when something monumental was happening. As a teen, I read 'Alice in Wonderland' and the sequel 'Through the Looking Glass.' As you know, it is the eleventh stanza of a poem by Lewis Carroll called ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter.’ In the fall of 1993 when I began my time at Renner Middle School, I was handing out quizzes in my Texas history class during first period, and it popped into my memory. Ever since then it has been used in my class. I now say it on the last day of school, and there are certain classes who have to finish the quote for me because my eyes and throat are too clogged with tears.” 

It’s all good proof that making creative choices always needs just a little bit of space. 

Daniel Adeyemi, a friend and colleague from the Drucker Challenge, is a writer for TechCabal. Based in Nigeria, he writes about the impact of tech on business in Africa. And he’s one of the most creative thinkers I know. Over the course of this entire year, he pushed me to find that space, to keep making creative choices, however big or small. It served as a good reminder for all - sometimes we need creative accountability partners when it’s damn hard to be creative. 

In an exchange this fall, we talked about creative choices. 

MS: What does 'creative choice' mean to you? 

DA: A choice made in uncertainty. Making a choice that's different from the norm.

MS: Why do creative choices matter? 

DA: Life is full of uncertainties. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.

MS: What (or who) holds you back from making a creative choice? 

DA: Fear. Fear of not being able to explain why, fear of being out of place, fear of defying logic.

MS: What (or who) opens up the door for it? 

DA: Boredom. It's boring doing things the same way all the time. Necessity. The search for novelty. Sometimes I need a different perspective.

MS: Are creative choices scary, exciting, overwhelming (all of those?!) for you? 

DA: All of these and more. It depends on what's at stake. Yeah, they're scary when there are other 'surer' choices, exciting when I'm in need of a different perspective or result.

MS: How do you teach someone else when or how to make a creative choice? 

DA: Hmm, A general framework would be to be intentional about breaking routines. Infuse serendipity into your life. A good way to stay conscious of this is to ask yourself at the end of the week, "What did I do differently last week or what will I do differently this week?"  

MS: What's the last creative choice you made, and what was the impact? 

DA: Errm. Putting on some wait: Intentionally choosing the slower option whenever possible. It's helped me notice things that I miss out around me. I've gotten some good thoughts and ideas, too. 

Here are a handful of truth sparks (ts) about creative choices for this week:

ts 1. Choosing to use a semicolon is a pretty creative choice; those who know me, know it’s one of my fave moves. Thank you to the NYT for shining some light on, what I think, is one damn good choice of punctuation. 

ts 2. I attended a seminar last week taught by one of my all-time favorite undergraduate professors at Kenyon College - Donald L. Rogan Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus Royal Rhodes. It was a conversation about secular and sacred February traditions; after Q&A, he asked us a hearty handful of alumni a question that’ll be familiar to some - but with a twist: write a six word memoir about your life over the last year. 

Here’s mine: Learned to smile with my eyes. Now, let’s hear yours. Make a creative choice. 

 ts 3. It’s not fair to say this poem is making a comeback because it’s a classic piece that dates back to 1935, but an excerpt of it has popped up in a CNBC spot celebrating Black History Month. It’s a well-timed and interesting creative choice for a real-time financial news outlet. So, here’s a liberal arts moment for all you business thinkers - the full text of ‘Let America be America Again’ by the Harlem Renaissance great, Langston Hughes.

Refresher: The newsletter's title is a h/t to one of my favorite lines in David Foster Wallace's This is Water. Go read it.