Comments on: It’s a Bag of Coal

By: Lisa M Lane

Lisa M Lane — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:54:53 +0000

You’re right, of course. Everyone is creative, but that doesn’t mean that creativity is important to them, or that they are willing to translate/use/showcase/interpret it into an open/web-based/electronic environment.

I worry about the overuse of the word “fear”. The attitude I’m calling “apathetic” seems quite set in people’s minds, and although it may be based on fear, I’m not sure that indicating that to them is helpful. What we can do is showcase the possibilities of exploration.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:04:06 +0000

I know you have a coal train worth of experience here, Lisa. I agree about fear, but there is also the fear of change, of leaving terra firma for unknown lands. Is fear of change apathy? Maybe.

I never buy into those cop out statements of “I’m not creative” Probe farther and you will always find something creative everyone does.

By: Lisa M Lane

Lisa M Lane — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:58:30 +0000

I’m not sure it’s fear and loathing so much as apathy. Some people who fear and loathe actually know something about what it is they fear and loathe – I find them easier to talk with because they’re being critical rather than just reactive.

Other people want things to stay the same because they’re already committed to those things. Maybe (gasp) some folks just don’t care to learn, really.

I think it’s best just to keep ordinary-izing it — make the creativity so common it’s just a given, just what we do.

And yeah, time. They think it’s something you find but it’s something you make, of course. If it’s important to you, you make time. Do we need people for whom creativity is unimportant to join?

By: Sandy Brown Jensen

Sandy Brown Jensen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:15:21 +0000

It’s like pissin’ in the wind, Alan. Either people seem to have time for bags of gold, or they don’t. It has less to do with technology/the internet/ etc., than it does about a personal sense of how much time you have. Colleagues are always saying how busy they are and have time for nothing…but it’s a matter of consciousness of time…scarcity vs plenty.

I, for one, always have time for bags of gold (or coal–also interesting!). I have recruits to my cause, but it tends to be a matter of like-minded people finding each other, are we are people who like to play and dance through life, creating as we go.

Just be the irresistible force that you are and don’t worry about the immoveable mountain!