Space, Baby, Space
making room for a new paradigm is not as easy as it looks
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Space, Baby, Space
making room for a new paradigm is not as easy as it looks
This last week felt as if I was crawling in an attic space made for mice, not people. Cobwebs everywhere. Narrow strips of light barely breaking through the slats at one end. Scraping my knees on splintering boards. Breathing in stale, musty air. The taste of dust in my mouth.
Boxes and boxes of old books, papers, old journals, tubes of rolled up mind maps. And I thought getting all of this organized was going to be a piece of cake?
I thought my Framework of Intentions was the jet engine to forge ahead?
But (she cries out in the crawl space in her mind)… I love my Framework of Intentions!
And herein lies a crucial caution when you’re dealing with scooting over a long-standing paradigm to make room for its descendant: you cannot afford to love any one thing too much.
And that’s where I have been, for days: barricaded behind a loving blind spot, tangled up in my own salty pride for my Framework Of Intentions.
I thought this framework was the key to giving Radical Creativity a theoretical structure and foundation for its practical applications.
For what good is a new paradigm if we don’t a) understand it (theory) and b) use it (practicality), right?
But here’s the lesson that has been raining down on me as I watched one Sunday slide by, without a post. Then the next Sunday slide by without a post…
Radical Creativity is organic.
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Yes, it has a set of core principles. Yes, it has specific characteristics. Yes, it has specific applications.
But beyond that, Radical Creativity’s timing, style, and purpose are endlessly fluid based on the nature of who is creating, what is being created, when it’s being created, and where.
And, yes, this is equally true for plain ole standard Creativity.
IRL, Unpacking Radical Creativity Is Messy
As I started planning how to shape Intention #1---Take 110% responsibility for all aspects of your creativity—I felt uneasy, as if I was heading into the Wilds of Borneo without a map.
I really, really needed to get out of the attic.
I needed fresh air. A cool drink of water. A walk in the snow. I needed to reset my nervous system. I needed to keep my thoughts as present-tense as possible, and experience the sensuality of being alive.
And on the walk, this thought slid in: Ariane, you are so excited by all the exotic trees (Framework of Intentions), that you’ve forgotten to look at the whole Radical Creativity forest.
I let that cliché percolate for a few days, and here’s where I’ve landed.
The Realm of Radical Creativity: Our Theoretical Backbone
For me, the end game is always about the daily experience of being alive.
I’ll go into “experiencing aliveness” in more detail in a future post because, as it turns out, experiencing aliveness is not only a hallmark of teens, but also of adults who have, deliberately or inadvertently, kept a lifeline open to their Inner Teen.
For now, let’s acknowledge how aliveness underpins the way we think, feel, and interact with ourselves and others on a daily basis. And acknowledge that we are always somewhere on its continuum from experiencing low aliveness to high aliveness, and anywhere in-between.
Aliveness—as an experience—is a practical, trustworthy barometer helping us gauge how our relationship to being alive is unfolding.
And within our Realm of Radical Creativity, the way we experience aliveness is a practical matter. All the choices we make before, during, and after a creative project are affected by where we are on the aliveness spectrum.
But, before we play around with practical applications, let’s take a mindful meander inside Radical Creativity.
Let’s start here, with four cornerstones that already hint at their prospective practicality: The Evergreen Realms of Radical Creativity.
The Wellspring & Primary Purpose of Radical Creativity
Our Relationship to Self & Growth with Radical Creativity
The Collaboration Between Radical Creativity and Our Life
The Transforming Impact of Radical Creativity
Now we have two, core structures (Framework of Intentions, with three aspects, and The Evergreen Realms of Radical Creativity, with four aspects), and one more around the corner, my Six Zones of Radical Creativity (practical application).
Together, these three frameworks total thirteen discreet components.
At this point, my brain is imploding and I need another walk.
How do I sort out the hierarchy (what comes first, second… last), the interconnections between components (I know there’s a math equation that could nail the infinite possibilities of 1 interacting with 6, as 7 interacts with 1 after seeing what’s up with 12…anyone here good with math?), and the endgame: practical applications for all of it.
What’s a creative to do?
WindyWild To The Rescue
Since a key aspect of Radical Creativity, which I highly recommend, is accessing the ever-available resource of our Inner Teen, that’s what I did.
Here’s our conversation: dominant hand asking the question (adult me) with non-dominant hand responding (my Inner Teen).
ME:
Hey WindyWild, I'm tying myself in knots over this next post, about the difference between how we traditionally think about creativity and what I'm calling Radical Creativity with our Inner Teen.
I want to establish a clear path forward and not get lost in theory or make it complicated.
What are your thoughts?
WW:
It's about space. Opening mental space and heart space.
Space to believe that what you do offers our aching world healing balm.
Space to let go of our collective, new affirmation of what it means to be a creative person.
And ironically, AI is igniting this revolution for radical C to become the new muse.
It's hard to move over traditional paradigms before you first make space because RC understands whose shoulders we are all standing upon.
Like most conversations with WindyWild, she tells me things that beg for follow-up questions.
Like: What do you mean by “ … AI is igniting this revolution…”? Say more about “whose shoulders we are all standing upon.”
Without that extended dialogue, here’s my limited, line-by-line translation of what WindyWild is telling me:
It's about space. Opening mental space and heart space.
Instead of fretting over details, I need to allow the tension of thinking, which is taking up every square inch of my brain, to relax, open up space, and invite clarity to join me.
Space to believe that what you do offers our aching world healing balm.
Opening space involves making room for the quiet doubts about what I’m doing to step out of the shadows and stand in the belief that what all of us are doing here is healing a part of our collective consciousness, which has shut out the treasures of teenage development and their ramifications on our adult lives (never mind shelving the lives of IRL teens as inherently troublesome).
Space to let go of our collective, new affirmation of what it means to be a creative person.
This line is a bit obtuse, but I think she’s referring to a creator’s (me) tendency to come up with something, and then become so enamored with it that we lose sight of other, vital aspects of what we are creating.
And ironically, AI is igniting this revolution for radical C to become the new muse.
This is my favorite line because it tracks with what I’m coming to understand about how AI affects creators of all stripes.
When we stand on the fear side of AI—it’s going to erase/displace human creativity—it becomes difficult to see how AI—no matter how fast, or complex, or brain-like it might become—can never replace each of our unique, human experiences.
WindyWild’s “revolution” speaks to how AI will fill the void of busy work, or work for work’s sake, and give humans the space to become, and express, their essential selves, what I call the OriginalSelf and the CreativeSelf because that is all AI will leave us. And, in the process, free us to be our truest, deepest Self.
It's hard to move over traditional paradigms before you first make space because RC understands whose shoulders we are all standing upon.
This is the easiest line of all: we are always beholden to those creators who came before us, who bequeath us the their visions, processes, insights, and creative work that helps us understand and support our own.
What’s Next?
Here’s a question I’d like to unravel: How is Radical Creativity different from traditional creativity? What makes it radical?
Why are its differences essential and impactful?
Let’s tackle this next time, yes?
P.S. Do you have a question about any of this?
I promise even the vaguest shape of a question is okay with me.
I know I’m asking all of us to wrestle the intuitive vagueness of creativity into a new form, and it’s not easy.
But if you toss me some questions, those might fling open the door for others to ask their questions.
Just click the comment icon at the top or bottom of this post/email.
I promise kindness and respect, always. And I ask the same in return.
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