Eggs are nothing to yolk about…and other scrambled thoughts about creativity

eggs.

Today we shall discuss the Common Egg.

(Of course we shall discuss much, much more.  But we shall start with the Common Egg.)

When you look at the above carton of Common Eggs, what do you see?

Pause for a moment. Look at the spherical white eggs.

Now.  Close your eyes.

Tell us what you saw.

Please kindly describe.

wooden burl. table. shadow.

What was your description?

Was it:  “An egg is an egg is an egg.”

Was it:  “I’m not going to do this assignment.  I have other More Important Things to Do with my Time and what’s the point anyway?  Everyone knows what an egg is.”

“An egg is a conical white hard-shelled sphere which contains a yellow yolk and white which can be scrambled, fried, poached or baked.”

“An egg is a complete protein laid by a chicken.”

“An egg zips with wild energy dashing down the esophagus toward the churning fire of the belly where baby egg spirits release into the scintillating spirit of mankind.”

“An egg?  An egg is a child of the chicken Universe who lives in a carton with his brothers and sisters daring hungry breakfasters to ignore him for one more meal.  At night the egg-children roam around the refrigerator, painting their faces with ketchup and mustard.”

fish clock.

Dear reader, what was YOUR definition?  Were you wild and creative, or did you supply a more standard answer?

There is no shame in any response.

Eggs are eggs, and eggs can be Something More.

Each of us contains a creative yolk in our egg-like brain.

Some of us decide to crack the cultural norm and write, paint, sing, decorate or dance from it.

Others of us like to remain more solidly rooted, like the trunks of trees.

The world needs us both.

We need both within us. We need to express both energies, preferably daily, swallowing creativity and solidity like vitamins, getting our Daily Required nutrients.

Some of us need to remain more rooted when creativity threatens to remove us from the reality of the simple egg.  Others of us need to explore the path of perceiving something ordinary and simple…sinking beneath its ordinariness and simpleness…to expand upon it, detract from it, splash colors and textures on it.

old radio.

Some are afraid of creativity, in our bones.  We’re afraid to appear less-than-normal.  Less-than-sane.  Less than.

We think creativity will toss us off the safe earth into an abyss of Unexpected Unknowings.

This is usually an unfounded fear.

If we know that an egg is an egg is an egg–or at least that most people think so– we are probably safe to toss it into the air of creative unknowing and create something new.

If  we’re unsteady in our basic understanding of reality, perhaps the Universe will urge us to stick with solid definitions.

wooden clothespins.

What is the value of creativity?

Only that we expand our world.

Only that we marry different ideas and honeymoon endlessly.

Only that we delight in inconsistency while being consistently creative.

Only that we laugh long and deep at baby chicken possibilities.  We yolk a lot.

old scissors in snow.

How can we be more creative?

Look at something ordinary.  Old scissors.

Now let your mind dance.

Take another idea.  What do scissors do?  They cut, snip, separate.

What can’t be cut, snipped, separated?

Snow.  Fluffy white snow.

Photograph them in snow. 

A new contrast is born–something unspeakable–something that possibly delights the mind which wants to limit scissors to a role of cutting, slicing, snipping.

inside, outside.

Your assignment today, should you agree to accept it:  scramble, fry, bake, or poach something ordinary into something extraordinary simply by joining two different ideas, textures, thoughts, movements, expressions.

Do you let your creative side out to play often? Can you invite it out today?  Eggsactly what your eggs want to do today–and I’m not yolking!