Beyond Blood: Exploring the True Essence of Creativity
As a child, I grew up with two very different families. One was the family given to me, the biological one that I was born into. The second was my adopted one which came a little bit later and was the one I in some way chose. This dichotomy has worked its way in many different ways of how I see life including hearing a phrase like, "Creativity is in your blood." It's simple, the word blood for me has clearly at least two distinct understandings around it.
The first definition given to me from my first family has to do with blood meaning, it its own way, family. In some sense the definition for it pervades through the experience of one's being with a catch-all phrase like "blood is thicker than water," with blood intended to be something that is more powerful than one of the very things that allows us to live. Water is a necessity for life and if what is thicker than that (thicker being vague enough to mean stronger, deeper, as well as more difficult to escape from and get out due to its viscosity) is blood, it also allows us to be controlled because it's the idea that "no matter what (you do or what happens or who says what), I'll be there for you." The truth is, this is not the definition for the word I would go with when someone says creativity is in your blood, because in reality a man needs boundaries and the ability to say no and walk away, especially when people aren't treating you the way you want to be treated.
The second definition for blood I received as a child is the one my second family gave to me, and it has more to do with "the Blood of Christ." Now, let's be clear, I am not in any way any longer a monotheist. I experience the world in a very polytheistic manner as a mythologist. There is depth and understanding in many of the stories that you just can't get anywhere else. That is, the blood of christ becomes a metaphor for the spirit, your Being, the essence at the center of who you really are and isn't something to be taken in any kind of a literal sense on either side of that argument. That being said, if I had to choose, this would be the definition I would use in saying that (and arguing against, in this case), "Creativity is in your blood."
In my very own, very personal experience, I have seen Creativity show up in many ways but the most prominent way unfolding in my life today reveals something other than me as the seat of my creativity. Something far greater than me. There are cultures in the past that have believed that at birth, you came into this world with your own Genius, your own Genie, your Daimon. That's not a very Christian perspective I know, it's not and that’s the way it’s going to stay but stay with me. Those cultures believed that your birthday was never a celebration for you but was a celebration of that Genius that was born into this world with you. The gifts that are given to you on your birthday are never for you, but for the Genius, reflecting the importance of the relationship you maintain with the Great Other. Think about them if you want to get me something.
In my experience, Creativity is NOT in my blood ... it is in my Genius. The Great Other as some traditions call it. My birthday is coming up and I want to make it clear that anything I will have received from it only gets used in connection with this Genius as the gift of my creativity really belongs to them anyway. Thank you.
