A CRISIS OF CREATIVITY - CAN WE GROW UP TO BE A CHILD?

 

In a beautiful poem called ‘My Heart Leaps Up’ or also ‘The Rainbow’, William Wordsworth expressed the thought ‘The child is the father of the man’. 

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky;

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old’

Or let me die!

The Child is the father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

The poet says that the rainbow always fascinates him, it did when he was a child, it still does when he is a man and he hopes that these child like emotions and curiosities continue to reside in him till his last days. He would rather die than lose that leap of the heart on seeing this marvel of nature.

But unfortunately, on most occasions as we grow up we lose our childhood qualities of inquisitiveness, curiosity, fearlessness and the sense of adventure.

As parents know only too well, children can be both endearing and frustrating, often within minutes of each other. Children can be spontaneous, unselfconscious, and joyful, but they can also be self-centered, impulsive and irritable. We could refer to their endearing qualities by the term "childlike” and to their frustrating qualities by the term "childish".

Children seem to know something that adults have forgotten. They appear more confident, more courageous and enjoy life more intensely than we adults do. As we grow into adulthood, it seems that most of us lose our childishness-we become more mature, and more in control of our emotions-, but unfortunately, we also lose much of our childlike qualities as well-we are less capable of being spontaneous, unselfconscious and joyful. In other words, we lose the good with the bad.

 

What makes children so special?

1. Children see each day as a new beginning - When you are young, a day can feel like an eternity. Yet each new day brings with it new prospects and new opportunities to make new friends, explore new adventures and learn new things. Every day is an occasion to start afresh. And, unlike adults, children do not carry baggage from one day to the next.  Their fights usually set with the sun and friendship again appears with the next sunrise.

2. Children are fearless - Children are more willing to explore and try new things. They are unaware of the consequences and are more willing to try the impossible. If they injure themselves they use it as an opportunity to learn from their mistakes. As adults, we often hold ourselves back, predominantly because of fear, and give this fear the cloak of ‘wisdom’. We stop ourselves from taking chances and seeing what happens, knowing fully well that success comes to those who leave the safe harbours to sail the unknown seas.

3. Children lose themselves in creative projects - A child can often be seen getting lost in a creative project for hours at a time, be it drawing, playing with clay or building a sand castle!  Yet, as we get older, we stop seeing creative activities as worthwhile. To us, this is waste of time.

 4. Children find joy in most things and laugh without a reason - Children have a beautiful ability to find joy all around them. They see silliness everywhere. We are however very concerned about what others will say if we are seen indulging in childish pleasures.

 5. Children cry if they feel like it – Crying is not often an emotion that adults feel comfortable expressing, yet children do so all the time. Crying helps release our emotions in a normal, healthy way. Yet, instead, we always make it a point to keep it in check. Consequently, we end up keeping our emotions to ourselves. We adults often hold back our tears when there is no reason to. Crying can be a great stress buster. 

6. Children are active – Do you remember how fun it was to play outside, running around until you were out of breath and fly kites and play with marbles? We never thought of being active as exercise or daily fitness, for playing was fun and it surely kept us healthy. 

7. Children are more willing to try new things - Children will attempt to play a sport that they have never tried before. They are more willing to jump on a trampoline or dive into a pool, or throw a javelin or short put, even if they have never done so before. Adults tend to have a fear of the unknown and prefer to stay in their comfort zone, rarely venturing out. Adventure though can make us feel exhilarated and awakened. 

8. Children are enthusiastic - Children are always excited, hopeful and optimistic. We adults, often tend to dwell on the negatives. The thrill of the new that children so enthusiastically embrace, we tend to miss out because of our fear of the unknown.

9. Children nurture friendships - Observe children playing with their friends, they often find pure joy in doing so and are always keen to make new ones. Children tend to enjoy their many activities too - they join soccer teams, go to birthday parties and enjoy quite a number of extra-curricular activities too. Adults, on the other hand contemplate whether it is worth their time to indulge in non-essentials.

10. Children notice the little things - The simple things that we often take for granted tend to bring incredible joy and profound inspiration to children. Running after a butterfly, watching the fishes in an aquarium for hours, following the line of ants marching towards their hole in the ground come naturally to children.  They notice the tiny miracles that surround them each day. How much more beautiful life could be if we noticed the same things they do?

So, can we grow up to be a child?

What would it take to retain just the good qualities associated with being a child and lose the bad ones?

What it takes is a deeper understanding of the underlying reason why children are both childlike and childish, because we will then discover that the very factors that help us overcome childishness are the ones that make us lose our childlikeness. To see how this is so, it is useful to understand what makes human beings so different from other animals.

As many psychologists have noted, humans are unique in their ability to imagine things that are not in our immediate environment. It is this ability that enables us to build models (e.g., Lego, Mechano, maps or prototypes), symbols (shapes, mathematics), and theories. It is the same ability that helps us to imagine the peace, happiness and beauty of Sri Ramchandra’s Ayodhya and the opulence and grandeur of Ravan’s Lanka. 

The ability to imagine also helps us plan for the future. Imagine, without the ability to plan, we would be prisoners of the present, and hence, wouldn't be nearly as powerful a species. Imagination also helps us empathize with others; it helps us feel what others in a vastly different situation feel. For example, even if we have never lost a limb, or been imprisoned, or been a refugee, we can imagine how it would feel to be in those circumstances.

As children grow up, they tend to lose their sense of wonder and imagination. As adults, we often become more focused on practical matters and may have less time or energy for imaginative play and exploration. Additionally, societal expectations and pressures can discourage adults from embracing our creativity and curiosity in the same way that we did as children.

Creativity and Imagination are the things that disappear as society fails to appreciate the uniqueness in a child. A patient of mine, who is an art teacher, told me that she saw it ever day. A child draws a picture of a tree or a person and the teacher (who is trying to be helpful) tells them "trees are green Ajay, not pink". The child may have dreamt it laden with blossoms! Or "how many fingers has Mummy got? You've given her nine!” How do you know that Ajay’s mummy does SO MUCH that surely she needs nine fingers; that is the child’s expression, why smother it?

 

A crisis of creativity

We train children not to express themselves or deviate from what is acceptable. We bring them up in an environment where they are penalized for being wrong. So, they take less risks and as a result become less creative. Ask someone to create anything, or speak on any subject, and I can assure you 99% will ask 'like what?' - Well ANYTHING – Most will say ‘I can't think of anything’. Most will not attempt, but rather Google or resort to ChatGPT! Children, who later grow up to become adults are scared to be wrong and scared to be creative. There is a huge problem, a crisis of creativity, the seeds of which are sown in their childhood. Picasso said it best, “All children are born artists, the trick is to stay an artist as we grow up.”