I understand that I risk coming across as too systematic in my approach with Values First Creative. Many people view creativity and methodicalness as a dichotomy — but I believe it’s a false one. A magician may never reveal their secrets because the magic comes from fooling people, not explaining how it’s possible to be fooled, but they did not stumble upon their tricks.
I do believe the resistance to a deeply considered approach to creativity comes from a beautiful place, though: the deep subconscious recognition of the ineffable substance, and in that recognition the reverence for it. It just works… and I couldn’t agree more. I enjoy consciously striving for a better understanding of what is ‘right’, but I am deferent to the concept of ‘right’ at its core. A beautiful streak of sunshine through a crack in a curtain, the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the warm embrace of a loved one. Marvelling at the purity of the moment of recognition of these things that just are is, to me, akin to worship.
Perhaps this is the ultimate value, the ability to recognise ‘right’. Without it, there is no contrast, without contrast, there is no hope. Our ability to experience goodness is not tied to any material possession, not linked to any circumstance, and not worth trading for anything — because without it, we would not be able to know what was good about what we traded.
In this light, intuition based creativity becomes a spiritual practice. A single stroke on a page, a photograph of a fence, a hand-tuned chord… admiring their beauty and our agency in recognising, in that moment, that we understand something we cannot put into words, is profound. What we build, write, paint, purely through being drawn to do so, is somehow both the root and the apogee of creativity.
Our desire to share these creations, to communicate — ultimately to know we are not alone — is the next step in our journey. Establishing ourselves as individuals with unique perspectives, whilst at the same time discovering belonging through shared recognition, is an intrinsic part of what life is.