The Creative Outlook

     I am trying to get organized to lead a writing workshop where I work. The one thing that I want people to learn from their experience in this group, is that bravery pays. Creative classes expose us in ways very few things do. You make something and you show the world, "this is what I did." You are prepared for the world to laugh and scoff, but you know it's yours and you need to own it. I don't think that it matters if what you created is amazing, ordinary, or even not so great. You have made a you outside of you and that is an accomplishment to be proud of. One of my favorite classes last year was a non-fiction writing class. You write your life on a page and you hand it to someone else that you barely know and you say "this is who I am." The reader's job is always judgment. Did the author expose enough? Did you have an opportunity to empathize? Did you want more? It sounds horrible but it can be the most freeing thing there is. When you write the words on a page it can be easier for the writer to understand who they are. When you hear what others think about that person on the page they are rarely as cruel as one might think. I think it is because it's easy to pick apart the three-dimensional being, but it is much more difficult when we show the many dimensions of our world. When we lay our lives open on paper we show the chinks in the armor. We are saying that this place is where my heart lies. That admission makes that spot less vulnerable because we created the armor while we were writing the words on the page, but also by showing our weakness we are inviting kindness and compassion.
    I don't miss grabbing fast food as I ran to get to class after work. I don't miss watching tv guiltily because I know that I should be doing homework. I enjoyed returning to school, but I am glad to focus myself on the world outside of the classroom. I look for ways to learn every day, but I think I might occasionally need that thrill of self-exposure. That thought of "This is me, is it okay?" It is strengthening and affirming. You should try it.

I hope we learn

     I don't know of anyone who is particularly excited about this coming election. Many of us are trying to choose between candidates that we are not thrilled with. What did we do to get us here? I believe it is because we are becoming better known for reaction than for evaluation. We can no longer use the excuse that the media and their biases are to blame. You can locate any bias that you chose, and new opinions are just a click away. Science has shown us that we seek biases that agree with out own. I would like to challenge people to seek out one article to read every day that they don't agree with. It has been proven that reading creates empathy. When you read something from someone else's point of view you can be exposed to new thoughts and ideas. This is definitely what is needed today. We are quick to polarize, and once we have chosen our side we are eager to defend it. Our candidates are great at polarizing. "If you are not for me you are against me." This is not a campaign based on issues but one based on feeling and emotion. Let us not be lead down this path again. It really isn't too late to demand issues however, it is too late to begin again and the candidates have a head start.
      I like to consider myself an open-minded person but when I took a class in critical thinking, I was forced to realize how quickly I formed my opinions before I found any facts to back it up. I have learned I am nowhere near as open minded as I would have thought, but now I know that my bias needs to be challenged and I should spend time evaluating my ideas instead of defending my beliefs, however sound that they may seem to me.
      The world is full of polarizing issues today. We need to remember that there is much more ground in the middle than on either side. It is far easier to come together when we aren't choosing sides. Racism is a scientific fact. All people are judged by their appearance and skin tone is obvious. However, fears and biases don't just go away because we want them to. We need positive reinforcement and positive actions and every side needs to hold out a hand. There is a football player who comes from a privileged background who is taking a stand for an issue it is said that he knows nothing about. Isn't this how we define heroes? Those who stand for issues that are not their own? Those people who risk much for those who have little. I understand that people may have problems with his method of protest and his issue, but instead of being so quick to judge take a minute to try and understand. If you can do that in some fashion he has accomplished his goal. You feel he is disrespectful but maybe that wasn't his intention, maybe it was to just start you thinking. I know it is mine.