When You Reach The Top...Then What?

Everybody has been creative at some point in their life. Sometimes the creativity has come easily, other times it has been a struggle to find even the smallest ounce. People may think that they are just having an off day, that the right side of the brain has taken a vacation, or their "creative juices" have all been drunk by the previous days splurge of brilliance. Yet, I have been inspired to think in a new direction after watching a TED speech by Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert is the author of Eat, Pray, Love. It wasn't until Eat, Pray, Love that she became a household name. But why wasn't she well known before? Gilbert credits it to a genius. I'm not talking about another person of high intelligence, but rather a creative force beyond our "realm," like a higher power, or a muse.

I was listening to WJRR 101.1 Sunday night and they were playing a half-hour devoted to Cage The Elephant to promote their upcoming release Thank You Happy Birthday. I caught part of an interview with one of the members who was asked about how the band felt about people expecting their sophomore CD to be as good as their freshman release. The member stated that it was difficult to live up to those expectations because the band deals with that self-concious feeling that the CD won't be good enough.  Even if you don't believe in a higher power as Gilbert hints toward, her overall message is still one that everybody can learn from. Gilbert wants us to accept that sometimes we hit a creative peak where, like in her case with Eat, Pray, Love, we are successful. We may never reach that level of success again, but we should not quit our job and fall into a depression over it. We should just continue to keep writing, dancing, drawing, etc.

Her speech inspired me because not only did she make a strong argument about altering our way of thinking about our own creativity, but you could tell she was passionate about the subject. Gilbert did her research to prove her point. She used historical references from Socrates, and the Greek and Roman way of thinking. She also incorporated modern stories from people she interviewed. Ruth Stone, an American poet, is one such interview that supports Gilbert's argument. The flow of the speech, sprinkled with bits of present examples and humor, kept me engaged with her telling of the genius and how she believes it should be viewed. Using the idea that after we have reached the peak of creativity and we should continue to live out our days as is normal, is inspiring because we should not live in fear of meeting a standard. Rather, we should live knowing that we have produced a solid piece of work and let it stand at that. That single piece of creativity was given all of the effort, and maybe a little help from a genius, to be what it became, a success.