Author: Rob Kistner

Online Writing Critiques

There are a number of online forums now available to writers where they can post their writing for critique by the others in the forum. Most require that you become a member. This doesn’t guarantee that all members are good writers or valuable critics. It does mean that you eventually get to know people, to some degree, and it tends to keep the casual curious away.

I belong to a couple of these sites and I post. I occasionally try my hand at being a helpful critic. However, I have to admit to being timid when it comes to offering constructive criticism. It always feels I’m imposing my writer’s voice on the voice of someone else’s very personal expression. It is uncomfortable for me to do so.
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Creativity
by: Rob Kistner

I want to reflect on human creativity, considering it from several different perspectives. First, let’s consider arts and crafts.

Arts & Crafts — There are many different types of creative human expression that fall under these two general categories: writing, painting, sculpting, weaving, ceramics, acting, singing, dance – the list is quite long. The artist or craftsperson determines and generates the creation as a form of communication: an emotional communication that reaches out to the human soul and spirit – the higher self.

The artist or craftsperson deems a creative work to be art or craft by their intention. Society determines if the creation communicated effectively enough to become enduring art or craft, but all expression of human creativity has great value.

I firmly believe encouraging the expression of human creativity can make the world a better place. A better place because creativity is the expression of the higher self. The world would do well if everyone grew closer in touch with his or her higher self.

If people were in touch with their higher self it would help curtail the atrocities and injustices they commit against each other. It would also add momentum to the focus to bring our planet back from the brink on which it now teeters.

Everyone is capable of creating. Contrary to what some may believe, people do not have to be taught to be creative. It is not necessary to learn that which we are already capable of. However, creativity can be elevated, which is a worthwhile undertaking. Education and mentoring are two excellent approaches.

If someone seeks art or craft as part of their life path, especially as their main life path, then they should be encouraged. I believe society should play a role in this. Organizations that foster and nurture the arts and crafts, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, should be funded and actively supported. It is good to have resources available for the creative disciplines.

There should be no censorship of these types of creativity. Human expression should not be repressed. Ideas resulting from the arts and crafts need to do battle in the public arena so that the consensus winner can, and hopefully will dominate. Society has an uncanny ability to eventually sort out what is best for itself. We must trust that.

Other Human Creativity — In addition to the many fields of arts and crafts, the obvious domains of human creativity, it is essential to realize that all areas of cognitively-driven human endeavor could be considered creative. For the sake of this essay, I want to focus on a few more that generate significant, far-reaching results — science, technology, and medicine.

These are a different type of human creativity. These have a direct physical impact on the world and its people. Humankind must count on the fact that it has a significant core of individuals who will instinctively, and creatively, pursue and advance these particular fields. It is essential we advance them if we are to reverse the world’s current lean towards a cataclysmic tipping point.

That said, I do believe that, while we may not want to necessarily censor these fields of creativity, it is essential that we closely monitor them. We must find a way to safely and effectively usher in these advancements. The challenge we face is to temper the untenable rush toward science, technology, and medicine — especially to the degree it is driven by the pursuit of corporate profits.

The pursuit of science, technology, and medicine must be accompanied by reason gleaned from history. The over-zealous dash to adopt every discovery in these areas, and quickly and carelessly usher them into our daily lives, has already unleashed a chain of both macroscopic and microscopic events that seriously threaten the intertwined fabrics of our global ecosystem on many fronts – personal health, the oceans, our agriculture, the animals — the environment as a whole.

The fields of science, technology, and medicine are potent as never before. They hold the promise for our future, but only if we find a way to approach them, and the resulting discoveries, responsibly. With regard to the discoveries, we cannot abide the introduce-because-we-can mindset. It threatens global survivability.

Before it’s too late, we must begin a worldwide dialog concerning responsible creativity in these fields, in the research and development, and get the entire planet to join the conversation. From that conversation must arise a blueprint regarding the disposition and introduction of new discoveries in these fields, to which we all agree — and a mechanism to make the blueprint effective and binding.

BOTTOM LINE

We must encourage and support the participation, by all the people of the earth, in some form of creativity. Whether it is for personal expression or for the larger benefit of society, be it grand or modest — the act of human creativity has the potential to save the planet, and to save its inhabitants.